SEA BRIGHT – Tommy Bonfiglio is passionate about pizza. And the kind of pizza he cares about is cooked in a coal fired oven, the kind he will soon install in his new restaurant, Tommy’s Tavern + Tap, in the old borough Post Office building at 1030 Ocean Avenue.
He plans to be open for business by mid-July. We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “We’re happy to be in Sea Bright.” Despite the ravages of Super Storm Sandy in 2012, much of the original post office structure remains, including the wooden beams on the ceiling, the brick walls and the 130-year old metal support columns in the north side of the building.
Bonfiglio said he has brought in 30 truckloads of dirt to build up the floor of the building, which he plans to cover with polished concrete. He said he paid $1.6 million for the building and will put in another $2 million for its restoration.
Brooklyn native Bonfiglio, 55, a partner in the Red Bank law firm Bonfiglio & Asterita, is not new to the pizza business. He has opened four Tommy’s Coal Fired Pizza restaurants. Three were sold, including one in the Red Bank Galleria, and the fourth was closed. He previously owned the Dockside on the river in Sea Bright.
Now Bonfiglio said he and his wife, Yvette, and his daughter, Andrea, would be working together at the new Sea Bright restaurant, not far from their Monmouth Beach home. He said the family loved being in the restaurant business.
Bonfiglio said he liked the fact that since he has been in the restaurant business people recognize him, which doesn’t happen in the law profession.
The restaurant will have 260 seats he said, with 100 outside – 60 on the river side and 40 on the east side of the building. There will be 45 television sets on the walls and a sports bar with 24 different beers on tap.
The menu will be varied and include coal oven roasted pizza and wings, as well as pasta, sandwiches, burgers, soups, salads, tacos, sliders, dips, and other appetizers.
He said he believes he reason that pizza prepared in a coal fired oven is so tasty is that it is done at 800 degrees, and cooks rapidly, retaining the flavor of the toppings. For his restaurant, Bonfiglio, has chosen the same kind of coal-fired oven used at the famous Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn, near the Brooklyn Bridge.
