By John Burton
RED BANK – Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em for a West Front Street location – that is if you become a member.
Le Malt Club, planned for 22-24 West Front Street, a private, members-only cigar club, won unanimous approval from the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment last Thursday, with plans to renovate the site’s interior and hopefully complete the work by late 2016 or early ’17.
Saurabh Abrol is the sole principal in SMS Ventures, LLC (the first name initials of his wife and two daughters), which will operate the approximately 3,600-square-foot site. He told board members that he envisions the location as accepting and appealing to an exclusive clientele for its membership, and the operation and décor will reflect that effort.
“We’re definitely trying to have a more sophisticated environment at this location,” Abrol said.
Abrol currently operates Le Malt Lounge, located in the Colonia section of Woodbridge. That location has been in business for about 19 months and “It’s been a home run,” he said.
That location differs from what’s planned for Red Bank, given the lounge has a liquor license, giving it the ability to serve alcohol, which, as it advertises, consists of a substantial wine list and top-shelf brown liquors. The Woodbridge site has a high-end restaurant also available to the public.
The Red Bank location will be solely a BYO (bring your own), with the establishment providing individual lockers for members to store their libations, as well as providing a place for members’ own cigars. Restaurants, with their availability to the general public, are limited to beer and wine under state BYO regulations. But given this situation is for private membership, those members would be allowed to bring and drink other types of liquor. “It’s like drinking in your home,” said Rick Brodsky, Le Malt Club’s attorney.
Abrol said later he decided to go the route of a private club because of the prohibitive cost, and likely unavailability, in the borough of any consumption liquor licenses. Licenses could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
The site will have food service for members, consisting of a selection of tapas and entrees designed by Abrol’s James Beard Foundation alumnus executive chef, Duke Estime; and a retail cigar boutique with a separate entrance available for the public.
Like the Woodbridge location, Abrol said he would like to have music, certainly low-key background music and likely occasionally small jazz combos.
The sound would be kept to a level so as not to disturb the residents of the apartments in the building’s upper floors, Abrol said.
And the residential tenants will benefit from the state-of-the art ventilation system that will be installed, he added. According to Paul Perry, a construction professional working on this project, the system will use a four-part scrubbing and filtering system that uses 44 pounds of activated carbon, in addition to a six-ton standalone HVAC unit, working in concert with a rooftop exhaust fan.
This is “the most expensive approach,” Perry told the board, but “the most effective approach.”
“There is no way, I can guarantee it,” Perry insisted, “that any cigar smoke is exiting the building,” as well as “absolutely no issue with indoor air quality.”
Le Malt Club will allow members to use cigarettes, pipes and electronic cigarettes, in addition to cigars in its designated smoking areas.
His Woodbridge location enforces a minimum age of 25 for admittance and a strict dress code, Abrol said. Similar steps will be taken for the Red Bank location, marketing the spot to the “35 or older” clientele, he explained. He couldn’t say what the membership cost would be – “We’re working on the economics of that” – but it will be set to keep it as an exclusive location. And plans on establishing some sort of committee to evaluate membership beyond simply being able to afford it. “We want to create a great culture,” he said.
The location should be able to accommodate 100-120 members at a given time and will be run on a reservation basis. Abrol said it will operate from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. seven days a week.
The location, which previously housed a gym and yoga studio, will cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to renovate, Abrol said.
Along with the Le Malt business ventures, Abrol is chief executive officer of Wine Chateau, an online and brick-and-mortar retail liquor operation. Started in 1994, by Abrol’s father, Arun Abrol, Wine Chateau currently has four retail operations, with Matawan being its only Monmouth County site.
Originally published in the June 9-16 edition of The Two River Times
