New York Times zeroes in on downtown Asbury
Bangs Ave. gets special mention for new young business owners
The New York Times Sunday travel section is featuring a story about Asbury Park, one that stresses how the city remained true to its own at-times gritty self.
Coming in for particular notice are downtown businesses Cafe Volan [owners Doug Parent and Paul Cali shown above], Colonel’s Kissing Booth, Sweet Joey’s and the Press Room. Also mentioned are Blue Hawaii, ReBearth Artist Boutique and Woodshop skateboards. Marilyn Schlossbach of Langosta Lounge on the boardwalk was also featured.
From the Times article entitled “Jersey Shore Rebound”:
The last 18 months have been particularly transformative for one formerly forlorn area. Enlivened by a group of entrepreneurs mostly in their late 20s and early 30s, Bangs Avenue has become a hip extension of Asbury Park’s robust cultural and culinary scene.
“Last year at this time there was nobody,” Paul Cali said recently as he motioned toward the bustle of Bangs Avenue. “Now it’s a neighborhood.” Mr. Cali, 30, is the co-owner of Cafe Volan (510 Bangs Avenue; 732-455-3399; cafevolan.com), a relaxed, airy cafe a stroll from the ocean. In addition to brewing coffee with rich, sophisticated textures, Cafe Volan, which opened a year ago, has become a social centerpiece for the newly invigorated street.
Blue Hawaii, a vintage clothing shop, Wood Shop Skateboards, and ReBearth Artist Boutique have all recently opened, and none of the shop owners is older than 40.
Across the street from Cafe Volan is Sweet Joey’s (523 Bangs Avenue; 732-455-3183;sweetjoeys.com), a bespoke denim shop that also offers vintage clothes. Joey Pisch, 31, opened the shop in May 2011, where he works alongside his father, Vlado, the house tailor. “My father started making jeans in the ’70s for his friends,” Mr. Pisch said of his father’s life in Communist Czechoslovakia, “because Western jeans cost a month’s wages.” Vlad jeans, as they’re called, run around $300.
Like the rest of Asbury Park, the Bangs Avenue scene is welcoming and unassuming, but the Colonel’s Kissing Booth (516 Summerfield Avenue; 732-455-3500) sets new standards of friendliness. Its small, well-executed menu features brunch standards — omelets, burgers — and its owner, Shiah Blau, 25, seems equally energized by his food and his community. “Once you get here, you feel at home,” Mr. Blau said of his restaurant and his hometown. And you can’t help but feel at home there since the staff consists of Mr. Blau, his mother, his two sisters, and his best friend.
Click here for the full Times article.
