By Allison Perrine
RUMSON – A decade after brothers Chris and James Smith purchased Val’s Tavern, a popular eatery in the borough known for its thin-crust lobster pizza, the restaurant will get renovations to include seating at an elevated outdoor café and an access ramp for wheelchair patrons.
As approved Tuesday by the Rumson Zoning Board, upgrades will give Val’s a “fresh face,” but it will still be “the same Val’s, the same pizza, same everything,” said Chris Smith, co-owner of the restaurant originally established in 1942.
The improvements will also make the restaurant, located on East River Road, more ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, which officials have wanted the owners to address for some time.
Val’s representatives first went before the zoning board in 2018 seeking approval to install enclosed outdoor café seating, restripe the parking lot and make interior renovations for increased restaurant and bar seating.
They returned to the board Tuesday seeking an amendment to the original plan. Renovations will now include the construction of a raised, enclosed outdoor café seating area, enclosure of part of the building, construction of a vestibule area and renovation of the interior to allow for additional seating.
This “top-down renovation of the inside and outside” of Val’s Tavern, Smith said, will also include a more formal entranceway to the bar side of the restaurant and an access ramp to the raised patio and first floor of the restaurant.
A private party room will also be created on the second floor of the building where there is currently office space and a meeting room. It will seat 40 to 50 people and patrons will have the option of hosting functions there.
The application was approved unanimously by the voting zoning board members present.
“It was more ADA-compliant. That’s really what sold the board,” said Frederick J. André, Rumson Zoning Board secretary.
“We feel like we have a great business and we see ourselves staying there for the next 10-plus years. We want to invest in the property and grow with the town,” Smith said.
