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Local Chef Bilal Mohammed will open the westside’s Kula Café for “Dinner with Chef Bilal at Kula Café” beginning Tuesday, November 13, and each Tuesday following.

Normally open for breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, the Kula Café will now stay open Tuesdays until 9 p.m. for a specially prepared, homestyle comfort cuisine dinner each week as prepared by Bilal Mohammed.

Mohammed [at right] started cooking at Kula a year ago and is instrumental in the restaurant’s dual mission of providing good food at reasonable prices, while Kula’s owner Interfaith Neighbors operates a hospitality training program to help young local men and women develop their skills for employment in the hospitality industry and other related customer service fields of employment.

Mohammed grew up in a large and close family in Asbury Park, graduating from Asbury Park High School in 1999. His father, Wali Mohammed, operated Wali’s Fish and Chips at Asbury Avenue and Church Street and the Chicken Holiday in Ocean Township.

The younger Mohammed left Asbury to study culinary arts in Pittsburgh and worked as a chef for over a decade at the Hilton Hotel and Spice Restaurant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

He came home in 2010 and worked at Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls and Pop’s Garage on the Asbury Park Boardwalk before signing on with Kula about a year ago.

The menu for the Nov. 13 Tuesday night “Dinner with Chef Bilal at Kula Café” offers fried chicken and meatloaf dinners with sides for $11, baked ziti for $9 and a children’s meal of chicken tenders with baked macaroni and cheese and fruit for $6.

“This gives people a different outlet to eat out on the west side of Asbury Park, in a nice setting, and enjoy home cooked, comfort food,” Mohammed said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Kula Café is an Interfaith Neighbors on the job training program located at 1201 Springwood Ave. at the corner of Atkins Avenue. For more information, call 732 455 0514.

[Photo courtesy of Interfaith Neighbors]

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