These classic New Jersey restaurants never go out of style
Friendly service, familiar faces and good food keep diners coming back to these classic New Jersey restaurants.
Numa Modern Mediterranean Kitchen & Bar, a new restaurant at The Grove West in Shrewsbury, will open this spring.
It takes the place of Albarino Tapas & Wine Bar, which closed at 508 Broad St. in November.
Numa Hospitality, led by partners Vansh Arora of Asbury Park; his father, Kamal Arora, co-owner of Maize Cocina & Cocktails in Westfield, and Rajiv Uppal of Colts Neck began a complete renovation of the 4,700-square-foot restaurant in December. They hope to open Numa, which will seat around 120 diners, in late April, Vansh Arora said.
The restaurant will open initially with dinner service before adding lunch offerings in the future and will be open seven days a week. The menu, executed by Chefs Jiten Singh and Jack Cunningham, will feature Southern French, Sicilian and Mediterranean cuisines.
Singh comes to Numa from San Francisco, and Cunningham previously cooked at Pascal & Sabine and Heirloom at The St. Laurent in Asbury Park. The menu is still under development, but Singh’s overall philosphy is to focus on fresh, local and sustainable ingredients, he said, adding that the restaurant will source produce from local farms and cook with East Coast seafood. The idea is “farm to table, ocean to plate,” Singh said, and “keeping space in every section of the menu for (seasonal) dishes,” he said.
The beverage program will be led by Douglas Krajewski, previously of Asbury Park Distilling, Talula’s and Laylow in Asbury Park.
The group has redesigned the Albarino space, adding a 2,000-bottle wine cellar, a 10- to 12-person U-shaped cocktail bar lined in Polish blue tile, banquette seating beneath a draped brass chain canopy, a 15-seat dine-in bar below fluted glass panels and a glass door that swings open to an outdoor dining patio.
“We really want to excel on our culinary direction, but also (offer) great things to look at,” Vansh Arora said.
The dining room, with shimmering gold touches and dimmable lights, will feature a mural, and the restaurant’s color scheme focuses on greens, browns, summer yellow and orange, Vansh Arora said.
“It’s been the (culmination) of a lot of hard work,” he said. “We’re really looking to make this the jewel of The Grove West.”
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com, follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to her weekly newsletter.
Dining and Cooking