By John Burton
RED BANK – A members-only cigar luxury lounge and retail cigar shop is in the offing, contingent on the approval next month by the borough Zoning Board of Approval.
SMS Ventures, LLC is hoping to develop the 22-24 West Front St. location for Le Malt Club, to serve as the lounge, including amenities on the ground floor with nine apartments on the upper levels of the property. The applicant is to appear before the zoning board on June 2.
According to information filed with the borough’s Department of Planning and Zoning, the plan is for SMS Ventures to renovate the 3,600 square-foot site and establish the membership-required lounge area—a portion of which will permit on-site smoking in a space that will have a smoke filtration system. Food service will be available for members in a separate non-smoking area 24-hours-a-day. There will also be a retail shop, which principals are calling a cigar boutique, which will be open to the public.
No alcoholic beverages will be served. The company will instead offer a BYO (bring your own) policy, allowing club members to stock their personal minibars and keep cigars in humidors for themselves and their guests, according to the narrative the applicant provided to the borough office.
The location’s upper floors will have three one-bedroom apartments and six two-bedroom units.
The Red Bank club would differ from the Le Malt Lounge in Colonia, which has been in business for more than a year. The north Jersey location promotes itself as a restaurant with alcohol table service (no bar), describing it as a brown spirit/wine lounge – one, which its website announces, features more than 1,000 different brown spirits, including especially rare and aged Scotch whiskies and a selection of 300 wines.
But the Red Bank and Colonia locations will both have the same individual heading up the operations. The principal in this project is Saurabh Abrol, who has 100 percent ownership of SMS Ventures, LLC, and functions as chief executive officer for Le Malt Lounge in Colonia.
Abrol is also CEO and president of Wine Chateau, an online and brick and mortar retail liquor operation. Wine Chateau was founded by Abrol’s father, Arun Abrol, in 1994 and currently operates retail establishments in Metuchen, Piscataway, Colonia and Matawan.
Neither Saurabh Abrol nor his attorney, Rick Brodsky, responded to phone calls seeking comment for this story.
The 22-24 West Front St. property, owned in equal parts by Richard Stavola of Jupiter, Florida and Rumson resident Rim Lindau, is currently vacant on the first floor retail space, having previously been used for a salon and yoga studio.
SMS Ventures would require the zoning board to approve a use variance for this technically non-permitted use, as well as needing 48 parking spaces for the commercial and residential uses.
A cigar club has been tried before in the borough’s downtown commercial district. The now-defunct Ashes, 33 Broad St., now the home of Char Steakhouse, had operated as a private club, with a restaurant and bar open to the public. That spot, however, came under fire from both local and state officials and the subject of bitter acrimony among its owners. The business became bogged down in lawsuits among its owners resulting in it being placed in court-appointed receivership. State tax officials shut down the location for a time for failing to pay sales tax, and state Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) officials alleged impropriety with the liquor license ownership.
