Kula Cafe thriving on Springwood
Adds live music, expands hours, sees graduate accepted to leadership conference
The sounds of deep blues music have returned to the west side of Asbury Park, once the city’s stronghold of influential blues, soul and jazz music.
Kula Café, located in the Springwood Center on Springwood Avenue and owned by Interfaith Neighbors, now hosts “Deep Blue Blues Night” on the first and third Thursdays of each month. It is now open on weekends and has expanded hours to include breakfast service.
“We’ve brought live music back to Springwood Avenue and we’re averaging 50 to 60 guests each evening,” said Paul McEvily, associate executive director of Interfaith Neighbors, at a previous city council meeting.
“It’s right and just that music is back on Springwood,” said Roger Boyce, director of the city’s Business Development Center [BDC]. The BDC is also headquartered in the Springwood Center and owned by local non-profit group Interfaith Neighbors.
The restaurant is both a community café and a job training program. It provides a sixteen week hospitality-focused training program to students who wish to work in front-of-house positions as servers, bussers, runners, and hosts, within area restaurants.
“Bi-weekly blues nights offer participants new experience in a noisy, crowded restaurant,” Boyce said. “It’s exciting, it motivates them to step up their game, and they do.”
On Thursday, Sept. 19, the café will host the fifth Deep Blue Blues Night from 7 to 10 p.m. featuring Al Holmes and the Tribe [shown above].
“The biggest benefit is, it is a great experience for the participants,” said Boyce. “It is crowded, the pace is faster – as soon as the music plays things start cooking.”
Boyce is considering the addition of poetry slam nights or a gospel music nights on the Thursdays that alternate with the blues nights, which will remain a staple.
“We have to find out what people are interested in,” he said. “We’d like to mix it up for the participants, so we endeavor to give more and more of those experiences.”
A graduate of the program, 19-year-old Kevin Dawson, was placed at Fish Urban Dining as a food runner. He was hired full-time after completing the Kula Cafe training program and was eventually promoted to work the raw bar there, McEvily
At the start of the program, “there was nothing we could do to get Kevin to smile and engage the public,” McEvily said.
Things have changed for Dawson since his completion of the program. He was recently selected to attend the NeighborWorks Network’s Community Leadership Training Institute in Sacramento Calif, McEvily said.
The invitation-only, three-day training event aims to strengthen the voices and skills of community, resident and volunteer leaders, according to their website. Dawson will take part in the leadership conference in October with Mayor Myra Campbell and other members of the community.
Kula Café is located at 1201 Springwood Ave.
Expanded hours of operation are Tuesday to Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The café is closed on Mondays. Previously, the café was open from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
[Photo at top: Al Holmes and the Tribe play deep blues at the Kula Café. Band members include Holmes on guitar, Gene Boccia on bass and Al Johnson on drums.]
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