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All 150 applicants of The Salt School, currently underway on Saturday mornings at the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County’s Asbury Park location on Monroe Avenue, have been receiving hospitality industry tutorials from a few of the nation’s top professionals.

The free hospitality training program launched in 2016 in preparation for the opening of The Asbury, the city’s newest hotel and entertainment venue, located at 210 Fifth Avenue. Created by hotelier David Bowd, the training program was conceived with the goal of giving anyone in the community – of any background, experience-level, age, race, and orientation, the opportunity to receive gratis training by the best in the business.

Most, like Bowd [at right], who is part owner and The Asbury and Asbury Lanes operator, spoke of getting their start as a bellhop, bussing tables and/or washing dishes.

The unifying message from these industry professionals who now own and operate venues across the nation was that their success was a direct result of passion and perseverance.

The students, who range from Asbury Park High School students to those setting out on a new career path, met with restaurateurs Daniel Holzman of The Meatball Shop and David Massoni of the Three Kings restaurant group.

“I’ve only been here for about a half hour and I think I’ve heard like four people say they started as a dishwasher,” said Massoni, who also got is start in that position. “It’s the best entry level job you can ever get, in my opinion, because I think it’s in the coolest industry that you can ever work in; and that’s the restaurant, F&B [food and beverage], and hospitality industry. You have the most fun, you work with the coolest people and you get to make people happy.”

Massoni, whose goal is to create ‘neighborhood joints,’ said while he started off working in the back of the house, he went on to work as a waiter and bartender before moving to hotels as room service and laundry room positions.

“If you really love this industry and want to go far in it, work in as many different positions as you can,” he said.

In 2010, the Baltimore native opened his first eatery Thistle Hill Tavern in Brooklyn, which was immediately followed by Talde, named after business partner and famed chef Dale Talde, who has been on everything from Top Chef to Iron Chef and Chopped.

“Because of that notoriety we were able to grow our company pretty quickly,” Massoni said. They now have nine different eateries, including operating two NYC hotels and a spot in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“I’m not bragging,” he told the Salt students. “I’m just trying to inspire you guys. I started in 1989, it took me awhile to get there but I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could before I went out on my own to try to do my own thing.”

His parting words of advice to the group was:

“Have a party, make people feel welcome, create great moments. It’s how you talk to them, make them feel, the smile that you have, the warm embrace that you give that person. Whatever passion you have, bring that to your guest. I guarantee they will remember how you made them feel. My recommendation is engage, give your customers that one-on-one experience; they will remember how they felt. In cooking, salt makes everything taste better, You guys are the salt of this experience.”

Holzman, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who four star chef, with numerous television spotlights under his belt, delivered a message based on the edict of focusing on the positives and the things that help move one forward.

His start came in his early teens at an upper east side vegan restaurant before moving onto fine dining eateries. Although he was fired from a number of jobs, today he co owns close to 10 restaurants across the nation and launched the popular Project Foodie app.  

“In 2010 I had this opportunity to open my own restaurant,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be proud of the food that I was serving. For me it was about having a restaurant that we good have a good time at work and simultaneously make food that we are proud of and have service that we are proud of. The restaurant world, like everything else, is a moving target; and as you get better, the world around you gets better.”

His parting words of advice:

“Don’t fail to recognize the wind in your sail,” he said. “As a young kid, I had this chip on my shoulder and needed to do everything myself. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing better than collaboration. The reality is we are part of a community, whether we like it or not. A lot of us look at the difficulties and the things that have held us back and we fail to recognize the wind in our sails and the assets that we have that can help us. The one thing we all share is perseverance.”  

Thus far, there have been a number of behind the scenes Asbury Lanes reopening details revealed through the Salt School, which we will share in upcoming posts as well as a profile on the students.

But first we’ll start with this program overview featuring David Bowd:

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