By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer
MIKE PULIZZANO Vincenzo Rizzo (l) and Matt Bon Jovi stand outside the site of their future cocktail lounge in Sea Bright that they plan to open in mid-August. The building used to house the Peninsula Grille. The co-owners are undertaking extensive renovations to turn the building into a two-story lounge-style bar.
SEA BRIGHT — Something different.
That’s what Matt Bon Jovi and his business partner Vincenzo Rizzo are offering entertainment seekers with the cocktail lounge they are preparing to open on Ocean Avenue in the building that formerly housed the Peninsula Grille.
The operative word is "lounge." This is not your traditional bar or restaurant.
Bon Jovi, brother of singer Jon Bon Jovi, and Rizzo, a friend from childhood who goes by the name of Vinny, hope to have their cocktail lounge, named Elements, open by mid-August.
It will have big lounge chairs positioned in three groupings plus a horseshoe bar in the middle between them on the first floor, and more lounge chairs and another bar, plus a private room for members only, on the second floor which will have a huge picture window looking toward the ocean. He said the private room in the back, with its own waitress, would have liquor lockers for the members who can buy liquor or wine by the bottle and keep what they don’t drink on one visit until their next visit. Membership probably will cost $1,000 for a year, he said.
"We’re going to have a pretty decent selection of fine wines," he pointed out.
"It’s a New York-style lounge for those 21 and older," Bon Jovi said of his establishment. "It’s very lounge, very hotel bar, like the W Hotel or the Oak Room at the Plaza" in New York City.
Bon Jovi said the lounge will have a light menu available with such things as shushi, spring rolls and tuna — essentially appetizers and finger food — rather than dinners.
Bon Jovi said he and Rizzo were striving to open in mid-August in order to catch some of the summer traffic so the clientele can spread the word about the cocktail lounge before the slower winter months set it. He said he’s hoping that will carry them through the winter.
But they have a long way to go. The building has been gutted, and workmen are only now beginning to reconstruct the interior. Bon Jovi said it has been a rewarding experience.
"It was like striking gold in here during demolition," he said. "We took the ceiling down and found four more feet of space. We took the walls out and found brick walls behind the Sheetrock."
Bon Jovi said the decor has been themed around the five elements of feng shui — fire, water, earth, metal and wood. He said there would be a 10-by-10-foot waterfall on one wall, live bamboo growing out of the floor at the entrance, and sconces and candles anchored in the brick walls casting a soft glow over the lounge areas.
"It’s very mood related," he said.
Bon Jovi said he and Rizzo, who are operating under the name of M.V. Entertainment, were very pleased with their interior designer, Jeff Cahill, of Cahill Studio in Red Bank, and general contractor, Mike Bruno, of Navesink Development Group in Tinton Falls.
"I can’t say enough about Jeff," he said about Cahill. "He was a godsend. He took our idea and transformed it into what we envisioned. It’s so amazing, what he was able to accomplish."
As for Bruno, he said he’s done excellent work and is ahead of schedule.
"Everything about this project has fallen into place — I truly count my blessings," he added.
"I’ve been wanting to do this for about seven years now," Bon Jovi said, explaining that his background has been in managing clubs. In addtion to New Jersey, he has worked in Atlanta and Los Angeles. But he left Los Angeles and hightailed it back to New Jersey, where his heart was.
"I love the area," he said, noting that he was originally from Sayreville but grew up in Holmdel. "I lived in Los Angeles for four years and came running home to New Jersey.
"I guess once a Jersey boy, always a Jersey boy," he said.
Bon Jovi said that when he set out to do his cocktail lounge, he would find a liquor license available in a town he didn’t want to be in, and in the towns he wanted to be in he couldn’t find a liquor license. Then along came Sea Bright.
He said when he first called borough hall to inquire about the availability of a liquor license, they laughed and told him there hadn’t been one up for sale for years. But he took a flier and called a real estate agent in Sea Bright.
As it turned out, he said, two days before he called, a liquor license became available because the holder had gone into bankruptcy. That was Kenneth Greenwalt, of the Peninsula Grille.
Bon Jovi said he’s excited to be in Sea Bright at this time, as he feels it’s on the cusp of revitalization.
He cited the 20 oceanfront homes coming to the Tradewinds site, the new Exxon station, which has yet to open, and Angelica’s, the Italian restaurant just to the north of Elements, as the harbingers of great things that will be happening.
He also cited ongoing redevelopment in Long Branch and a rejuvenation of Asbury Park.
His cocktail lounge, he believes, will be yet another reason for visitors to stop at the northern end of the Shore rather than head for the hot spots of southern Monmouth County.
"I’ve always had the desire to go into the entertainment business," he said, "but I didn’t want to travel and live out of a suitcase."
Bon Jovi said he’s been living with his brother Jon at his home on Navesink River Road in Middletown while readying his cocktail lounge to open. But once it’s open, he said he expects he will be buying a place of his own closer to it in the Rumson-Sea Bright area.
Asked if his brother would be performing in Elements, Bon Jovi said he would not because the cocktail lounge doesn’t have a club license necessary by ordinance for live entertainment.
"I’m sure he’ll stop in for a martini, though," he added with a smile. "We’ll give him the night off."