Asbury Ale House Sports Bar opens in Steinbach building
“We’re bar guys, that’s what we do”
Asbury Ale House Sports Bar and Grille — an 8,100 square foot sports bar with 40 televisions featuring every major sports channel — opened on Monday in its high-profile location in the Steinbach building on Cookman Avenue.
This is the second try in the space for the Gullace family, which also owns the Shore House Bar and Grill in Point Pleasant. They had initially opened as Prohibition, a 1920s themed bar and restaurant, but closed that after Labor Day in preparation for the reopening as Asbury Ale House Sports Bar and Grille.
“We have 52 different drafts, 40 televisions with every single sports channel,” said partner Matthew Gullace. “We will be showing UFC fights also.”
“We want this to be a casual setting where people can come to once or twice a week as opposed to once a month,” Gullace told the Sun while he was preparing for the opening. “It will be a gastropub feel with sports memorabilia replacing the prohibition era art.”
Asbury Ale House Sports Bar and Grille will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. starting Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, opening time is 4 p.m.
The 350-capacity restaurant has undergone a transformation since it closed as Prohibtion, with a new ale house and pub look. Noteworthy is the new draft beer bar to the left when you enter. That area had been under construction while Prohibition was open.
Gullace said that the menu will be “gastropub with comfort food that’s delicious.”
Asbury Ale House Sports Bar and Grille will feature drink and food specials every day, as well as a Happy Hour on Monday through Friday from 4-7 p.m. with $2 drafts, $3 glasses of wine and $4 mixed drink. In addition, there will be a Ladies Night on Thursdays from 7 pm. to close, where women can drink half price all night.
There will also be a “Draft Club” — after you drink all 52 drafts offered, you get a plaque on the wall and a zip-up hoodie, Gullace said. And there’s the VIP Club for $35 a year which gets you your own locker with a 22 ounce mug, and for the year you’re charged at the pint rate of 16 ounces to fill it. The VIP Club also features giveaways and prizes every month, as well as a free buffet at the Super Bowl party.
Partners with Gullace of Belmar in the venture are his brothers Frank and Chris, both of Brick. Each will take leadership roles in running the front and back of house operations as well as the bar management, Gullace previously told the Sun.
“We’re bar guys, that’s what we do,” Gullace said. “My dad [Frank] has owned bars for 38 years and what I notice from this town is that the bars seem to work and that’s what we do best.”
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