Mabel opens as the first sit-down restaurant experience at Bell Works


By:  | January 10, 2025 Holmdel

By Bill Clark

Laura Brahn and Grace Crossman just couldn’t keep their excitement contained this past summer. The business partners behind the popular Asbury Park restaurant Cardinal Provisions were ready to open their new venture, Mabel at Bell Works in Holmdel. Only trouble? Mabel — which is notable as being the first full service sit-down restaurant at Bell Works — was still months from being ready to fully open for business. 

Though the interior was still under construction, the summer sun and warm air was perfect for the patio that they had set up outside, which meant excited diners hungry for a sneak preview could experience a hint of the menu that was to come, along with some adventurous cocktails. 

Brahn referred to it as “ripping the band aid off.” It was important that they got their name out around their new home, and the outdoor set up was perfect for the traffic that came in and out of Bell Works. 

Every member of the team came together during that time. Food was prepped at Cardinal Provisions and brought in for customers. Wine and other mixological creations were served up and Brahn and Crossman started to push through the difficulties of operating one restaurant while doing everything they could to make sure the new business took off as smoothly as possible. They weren’t going to let a perfectly good outdoor space go to waste as they formed and molded the inside to perfection. 

The patio sneak peek concept held Brahn and Crossman over until the indoor seating had a proper opening in November, where people were able to pull up a chair and enjoy the dining room with its classic, comfortable and elegant style. Perhaps the most comforting feature is the shelving that holds books, records, plants and figurines that anyone could mistake for the contented nature of their own dining room. 

The two had utilized every inch of their space for Cardinal on Bangs Avenue in Asbury Park. The spot caters to the breakfast, brunch and lunch crowd. Once in a while they would open for dinner, but the logistics were difficult with the limited kitchen space. With only four burners to use, it’s not easy to scale up a downtown business that just didn’t have the room to expand. 

“We've maxed out the space to the gills,” Brahn said during a few minutes of downtime. She had just finished family dinner for her staff and was preparing for a Thursday service where she and Crossman would be managing and participating in the controlled chaos of a professional kitchen.

Bell Works offered space, parking and a kitchen fit for a crew that produces shellfish, pastas, and an eclectic mix of entrees. 

“This was a way for us to have more space to do more things, be creative and have fun in a big playground,” she said. 

The duo wanted to create a worldly menu that wouldn’t be boxed into any one specific category of cuisine. If there was a dish that spoke to them, it had the chance to be featured.

“We kind of like to do what we want, but this way it's the best part of the cuisines we know how to make really well,” Brahn said. “French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and beyond. It’s food that lends itself to drinking and creates a great atmosphere.”

The partners also keep a straightforward ethos: simple food, full of flavor. The seasons dictate what makes up the menu, but each time a person visits Mabel they can expect to have a perfect dish, whether they are looking for meat, fish or pasta. 

“We try to fill all of those slots while still honoring our style and how we like to cook,” Brahn said. “Just real food done well with real ingredients that taste really good.”

Crafting the feel of the restaurant meant working with what was already in the space and building around it to form an environment that best suited Brahn and Crossman’s vision. 

“We have a beautiful, handmade mural, and lots of natural elements like woods and stones to soften it up and make it a little more natural and cozy.” she said. 

Both wanted to feminize the space, perfect for a restaurant that is owned by two women and an appropriate foil for the rigidity that comes with the history of the building (Bell Works was originally a research laboratory, and despite being reimagined as a fabulous shopping and entertainment mecca, portions of it maintain a somewhat sterile visual tone). Mabel helps shed the sense that visitors are walking into the harsh, unforgiving building seen in the hit AppleTV show “Severance” which uses the building as a setting.

The name even connects to their new home, honoring Alexander Graham Bell’s wife, Mabel. Mabel was an avid outdoorswoman and gardener and, according to Brahn, often gets overlooked in the story of the man who invented the telephone, as much of his interest in communications stemmed from his wife’s inability to hear. 

“We thought it made sense because, as female chefs, we’re often overlooked or breezed over,” Brahn said. “Our industry is not the kindest to women in the kitchen. So, we thought she was an interesting part of his story.”

The fact that both Crossman and Brahn are mothers adds to the sense of family and comfort that Mabel brings. Brahn referred to Bell Works as multigenerational as it houses a school among the businesses.

“We're definitely passionate about having a space that welcomes families,” Brahn said. 

Despite the bar, Brahn said that Mabel is a family friendly atmosphere where parents and children can enjoy time together. Both have families of their own and spend as much time with each other as they do with anyone else in their lives. 

Their connection goes back to childhood. Both went to Spring Lake Heights Elementary and Manasquan High School, each majored in Literature and spent time living in Brooklyn. But they didn’t meet until their time working at the trendy pizzeria/nightlife hotspot Porta in Asbury Park. Brahn welcomed the chance to work at Porta after not being content with a sedentary lifestyle. She wanted to both be active with her body and her artistry. The kitchen seemed a perfect combination of both. That creativity she craved could become a physical manifestation, while the boundless energy she felt wasn’t being used to its fullest extent could find an outlet. 

Though titles like “chef” and “partner” have heirs of importance to them, there seems to be no sense of egotism with the owners, as they rotate through the different stations of the kitchen, full participants in the process they care so deeply about. It gives them a chance to control the quality they take such pride in, while assuring things are running smoothly. During the rush, Brahn or Crossman may take the lead, calling out orders and keeping the operation moving. Being so early in the journey, Brahn knows that there’s always room for improvement.

  “We're constantly tweaking things and tasting things and working on how things are and what they look like and how they can be better,” she said. 

But they can’t do it all by themselves. Those that work within the restaurant are chosen because they are capable, but they also have an even more important quality. 

“We have a lot of trusted people who we can really lean into and do a great job,” Brahn said.

The current menu has options for the conventional as well as the curious. Brahn recommends the oysters, a personal favorite of hers, and certainly the scarpariello wings. 

“It's our play on a buffalo wing, but it's with a sauce that's of the classic Italian-American chicken scarpariello,” she said. “It's got bell pepper, cherry pepper, hot Italian sausage, rosemary, and white wine in it, but it reads like a buffalo sauce.”

Brahn also toted the house made pastas as well with their rich, flavorful sauces. 

The restaurateur hopes that Mabel gains traction so that in the future patrons can expect dynamic, creative meals. But she desires a much simpler sign of success. 

“At the end of the day, we are here because we like to see people have a good time,” she said. “We just want everyone to feel good. This is a people pleaser's paradise.”

 

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