As part of the rebranding of Rumson’s What’s Your Beef restaurant, new owner Marilyn Schlossbach had the sign removed last week, and in the process uncovered evidence of a past identity of the place: Nolan’s.
A quick search of the Red Bank Register archive indicates the business operated as Jack Nolan’s, a “gay ’90s night club,” in the early 1960s, but wound up in receivership.
After a remodeling, What’s Your Beef will reopen Monday with a new name: Russell & Bette’s. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Seven months after restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach and partners acquired What’s Your Beef in Rumson, alarming some stalwart customers, the remodeled restaurant will reopen Monday with a new name: Russell & Bette’s.
It will also boast another change that’s likely to get some snouts out of joint: the salad bar where customers used to line up and load up while awaiting their self-selected steaks has been eliminated, Schlossbach told redbankgreen Wednesday.
Jersey Shore restaurant maven Marilyn Schlossbach, below, hosted a free-food-and-drink “coming out party” Wednesday night at Rumson’s What’s Your Beef, which she and partners acquired in March.
The event was held, in part, to counteract “negative chatter” among some commenters about the change in ownership to the 47-year-old River Road chophouse, Schlossbach told redbankgreen.
“We just wanted people to see that we’re approachable and kind, as well as to highlight some of the new menu items,” Schlossbach said, as a full-house crowd sampled new menu items, such as beef bourguignon, mussels in garlic and white white wine, and pork and shrimp dumplings. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Food and drinks will be on the house when Rumson’s What’s Your Beef hosts an open-house, tapas-style sampling event later this month.
Jersey Shore restaurant maven Marilyn Schlossbach and partners have acquired What’s Your Beef in Rumson. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach is used to expectations: when she opens a new place, customers come looking for out-of-the-box creativity. Whether it’s been the casual fare of Langosta Lounge or Pop’s Garage, or the fine dining of now-gone Trinity and the Pope, foodies salivate when she introduces something new.
But with her latest endeavor, Schlossbach and her partners find themselves having to tamp down expectations. Why? Because the restaurant in question — What’s Your Beef, in Rumson — isn’t new, and its devoted, carnivorous fans aren’t looking for change.
“They have a very strong customer base here of loyal people who come every week,” Schlossbach told redbankgreen. “We don’t want to scare them away.”
Produce from the vegetable garden outside Pop’s Garage in the Grove West will be used in dishes. (Click to enlarge)
Pop’s Garage, a popular Mexican restaurant on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, opens its third outlet today in the Grove West shopping center in Shrewsbury.
The taqueria is the seventh in a cluster of varied restaurants owned and run by Marilyn Schlossbach, the brains behind Langosta Lounge, another Mexican place on the boardwalk; Trinity and the Pope, offering Cajun dishes in downtown Asbury; the Dauphin Grille, a seafood spot in that city’s Berkeley hotel, and the casual-themer Labrador Lounge, in Normandy Beach, where the third Pop’s Garage is also located.
But this one represents a breakout for Schlossbach, and not solely because it’s located in a highway shopping center. Along with her partner-brother Rich and husband Scott, Schlossbach created the Shrewsbury Pop’s as a prototype for what they hope will grow to into a national franchise.
redbankgreen caught up with 46-year-old Schlossbach who is also running for state Assembly as a Democrat in the new 11th District at a pre-opening party in Shrewsbury last Friday for the scoop on her empire-building plan.
Today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit looks in on a couple of our favorite restaurants not so coincidentally run by a couple of our favorite restaurateurs, both of them avid surfers with an eye toward some special events that they’ll be presenting in the nights to come.
First, we’ll head over to musician-friendly Jamians Food and Drink in Red Bank, where some pretty famous faces are expected to be hanging around throughout the month of December. It’s all thanks to another of proprietor Jamian LaViola‘s monthly art exhibits; this one a display of photographs by Mark Weiss (above), the local-dude-made-good who’s long specialized in shooting such stars of arena-scale rock as Jon Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith and Kiss.
Then we take it down to Langosta Lounge on the Asbury boards, scene of a hugely successful Holiday Soup Kitchen event this Thanksgiving past where owner and tireless driving force Marilyn Schlossbach (right, with niece) plans to celebrate her popular spot’s first birthday this week by giving back to the community once again, in the form of a “fundraiser fiesta” for the Hispanic Affairs and Resource Center. We’ve got pix from Thanx plus the story on Chef Marilyn’s many irons in the fire; served up with a side of the freshest and tastiest events from the coming week only in Red Bank oRBit.
Todays edition of Red Bank oRBit takes it down to Asbury Park, a music town where several generations of blues musicians could tell you a thing or five about the blues its history, technique and that certain something that draws a line between those who study it and those who live it.
When Hubert Sumlin comes to town “with a vengeance” on Thursday, the innovative stylist who most famously played guitar lieutenant to Howlin Wolf for years will be causing those generations of bluesguys to bow ‘n genuflect. He’ll appear at the lovely Langosta Lounge rather than a place that evokes the southern juke joints and midwest roadhouses of his formative years. In our exclusive interview, we talk to Sumlin about the long road that brought him to this day and place (including a strange case of giggus interruptus that happened right here in Red Bank), and the road that still winds ahead for the 77-year-old legend.
It’s there for your perusal in Red Bank oRBit the only online source for local arts and entertainment news that lives the blues!