There are categories when it comes to restaurants. The simple take-out counters, complete with greasy, paper-wrapped sandwiches. Then there’s the a la carte gems that specialize in no-frills plates. Steakhouses, tasting menus—you name it. The point is this: there are many types of restaurants in the world—and specifically in New Jersey—and there’s a place in my heart for all of them.
Still, sometimes meals stand out. Sometimes, I leave a restaurant with a different level of satisfaction. Sometimes, I’m left wondering if there is a ceiling to a restaurant’s excellence, or if they’ll just keep improving. I find myself feeling this way every time I dine at one of Chef David Viana and Neilly Robinson’s restaurants. The sheer level of care put into the concepts—and the meal that piggybacks off of it—is palpable.
Read my 2022 review of Heirloom at The St. Laurent
The duo has run the dining scene between the blurred lines of Central Jersey and the Shore since Viana came onto the team at the original Heirloom Kitchen eight years ago. Since then, all they’ve known is greatness. And at their sophomore establishment, Heirloom at The St. Laurent, this virtuosity is on full display.
It starts the moment you pull up to the restaurant. Heirloom is located on the first floor of the boutique Asbury Park hotel, The St. Laurent, in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The hotel and restaurant are built inside of a historic landmark, built before the turn of the 20th Century. A neon-red sign glows, reading “THE ST LAURENT” above the hotel’s front door. But, it’s the side door that we are concerned with, because through the side door exists one of NJ’s finest restaurants.
When you first walk into Heirloom, you are met with a spacious dining room, open kitchen and plenty of natural light flooding through, assuming it’s still bright out. White marble tables and minimalist, light-wood chairs occupy the floor. As the night progresses, the room becomes more and more intimate. The dining room employs the perfect mix of modern allure alongside touches of vintage decor leftover from the antique building’s bones. The tin ceiling, in particular, is especially mesmerizing. It’s left over from a time when builders put care into their work—when design was what drove a space.
Each table is set with care: a striped napkin, a stone rest for the white-handled flatware and beautifully thin, sleek water glasses. As you sit, a Maître d’ hands you a tan leather book containing the restaurant’s menus.
Heirloom follows a three-course, prix fixe outline for their dinner service, bolstered by a truly impressive cocktail list, and a well-thought wine list to boot. You might start with a Dirty Shirley—a vodka and rose vermouth-based high ball, sweetened with house grenadine and finished with a lemon-lime foam. It’s as much a science experiment as it is a cocktail, but not in an overbearing way. It’s playful—tapping into the juvenile aspect of dining, where food and drink invoke nostalgia. Of course, my childhood Shirleys weren’t spiked with vodka, and they certainly weren’t made with fresh pomegranate grenadine or topped with an ISI foam, but you get the idea.
In juxtaposition, a hefty stirred cocktail will do the trick. I’m going to say something bold. Heirloom’s Miami Vice Negroni is the best cocktail I’ve had all year. Employing a split of gin and coconut rum, the negroni riff also features white vermouth, pineapple liqueur and strawberry-infused Campari. It is the perfect middle ground cocktail. It’s spirit-forward in construction, but donning a lighter, more tropical fit. The combination of tropical flavors and Aperitifs—sometimes called Apertiki—has to be one of my favorite current trends in bartending. For me, it’s the ideal way to start any meal.
Your meal will see a cascade of artistically plated—and thoughtfully curated—dishes, led by Executive Chef Mike Smithling, along with Chef de Cuisine Alfonso Ezpinoza and Executive Sous Elio Lapaix.
But, before you dive into plated food, I implore you to order the optional bread service. Sans a gluten allergy, there is simply no reason not to. Four sweet, fluffy parker house rolls come with a fluorescent-orange compound butter made from spiced and smoky nduja salami. To go along with it, a seasonal tomato jam.
That seasonal flair is something you’ll find infused throughout the entirety of the menu, and especially in your first course. Take the foie gras, for example, which comes seared hard and surrounded by a chorus of both red and white strawberries. It’s a bright pop that something as rich as a chunk of warm foie gras desperately needs. Portuguese-style French toast cubes and a Sichuan-flavored maple syrup make up the resort of the dish. Foie gras—in all its beauty—can be as divisive in flavor as it is in concept, but at Heirloom, the richness is effectively masked, which, in a way, further amplifies its luxury.
Continuing the theme of seasonality is crispy roast pork belly with black currant and a cacao crumble that resembles dirt (in a good way!), which plays with a monochromatic color palette, with just a pop of bright-purplish-red from the currant. In contrast is a summer peach carpaccio—beautifully layered with dollops of mint labneh, crunchy red onion and shingles of Benton’s country ham, a dry-cured ham from Tennessee and a product I far prefer to prosciutto.
In between your first course and your mains is a great time to peruse the wine list, which at Heirloom, is as unique as it is defined with its heavy focus on farming practices, organic options and women-led winemaking. If you’re smart, you’ll ask for a pairing with your entrees. Heirloom’s Wine Director, Nicole Castro Garro, has you covered. It’s okay to not know what you want, and I wish more people would understand that. At a restaurant like Heirloom, it’s not only fine to ask for help, but encouraged, even. It’s a great way to discover something new—be it a grape or a producer. Garro recommended the Jolie Laide Glou d”Etat, a Grenache blend from California, a brightly-acidic red, booming with red fruits and pronounced tannins. An eating wine, so to speak.
Fresh off the first few sips of your new favorite wine, you’ll discover the area where I personally think Viana has always shone the brightest: plated entrees. Local scallops from the Barnegat Bay, bursting with sweetness, are seared to a crisp until just cooked through. Paired with the bivalve is a medley of chanterelles and blanched fava beans seasoned with a popping nasturtium vinegar, further accented by an allium-forward leek puree. It is a remarkable dish that highlights the kitchen team’s keen ability to build flavors in a thoughtful way that challenges diners.
And let’s get something straight: at any of Viana’s restaurants, you get the duck. This is not a recommendation so much as it is an order. It’s something the chef has become known for across his three restaurants. A Jamaican Jerk-inspired duck dish exhibits cuisine variance, while never straying far from the Heirloom’s central concept. The fat is perfectly rendered so that the skin exists as just a glassy layer atop the perfectly rosy, wall-to-wall interior of the meat. Paired with the perfectly cooked duck are braised collard greens, diced mango and a confit duck-stuffed pastry that riffs off the classic beef patty that you can find throughout the Caribbean and in hundreds of New York City bodegas. It’s both playful and impressive—of course, it’s lights-out delicious too.
For dessert, expect seasonal cobblers that come bubbling in cast iron and topped with silky ice cream that cascades over the top as it slowly melts. Or maybe you go for banana semifreddo with crunchy peanuts and glistening custardy banana. In contrast, beet and chocolate pavlova or melon-and-chocolate “yodels” show that you have a choice between the expected and the unexpected. Whatever floats your boat.
As New Jersey’s dining scene continues to grow, Heirloom at The St. Laurent displays what thoughtful, well-executed cuisine can achieve. Chef David Viana and Neilly Robinson have created a space where every detail—from the seasonal dishes to the impeccable service—contributes to a dining experience that lingers long after the meal is over.
Heirloom’s continued strive for culinary excellence is abundantly clear. The dining journey promises a meal that is brimming with both innovation and a dose of welcome nostalgia—challenging you with its perplexity all while comforting you with a sense of familiarity too. It’s this refreshing take on dining that reminds me why I do what I do. It’s because of restaurants like Heirloom at The St. Laurent. That’s why.
Want more like this? Read the story of Heirloom’s sister restaurant, Lita
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