Three Exciting New Additions to Discover in Asbury Park
This season brings three exciting additions to the local scene, each offering a distinctly different way to experience the city, including an entertainment-driven dining destination, a wellness-focused café, and a new home for contemporary art.
Whether you’re a longtime local or simply love keeping up with what’s new in Asbury Park, here are three places worth adding to your list.
Asbury Social: A New Chapter on Wesley Lake
A familiar Asbury Park landmark has entered a whole new chapter.
Located at 527 Lake Avenue in the former Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten space, Asbury Social is a new restaurant, cocktail bar, supper club, and entertainment destination created by the team behind House of Independents. After the former venue closed following the 2023 flooding, the space has been transformed into something designed to bring together dining, music, cocktails, and nightlife under one roof.
The concept is centered around an elevated supper club experience, with seasonal food, craft cocktails, a lively bar, and live music woven into the atmosphere. The goal is to create a place where dinner can easily turn into drinks, music, and a longer night out.
The space also features a more intimate lounge atmosphere, while a rooftop experience overlooking Wesley Lake and Ocean Grove is planned as part of the next phase of the project.
One of the most intriguing elements is hidden below street level. A private passageway connects Asbury Social with House of Independents, creating a unique link between the two venues and adding a little mystery to the experience.
Why check it out? Asbury Social is bringing a new kind of nightlife experience to the west side of town, with good food, cocktails, live entertainment, and plenty of reasons to stay for another round.
SOULwell: A New Kind of Café and Wellness Destination
What if your neighborhood coffee shop could be a place to linger, connect, move, and recharge?
That’s the idea behind SOULwell Café & Wellness Sanctuary, located at Asbury Ocean Club. More than a traditional café, SOULwell describes itself as a botanical café and social wellness sanctuary. It’s a space designed to bring together food and drink, movement, wellness, and community.
The café menu puts an intentional spin on the everyday ritual of grabbing a drink. Guests can find French press coffee, ceremonial matcha and cacao, botanical elixirs, ritual mocktails, teas, and nourishing bites. The concept is less about rushing in for a coffee to go and more about slowing down and enjoying the experience.
There’s plenty happening beyond the café too. SOULwell offers movement classes, private wellness sessions, workshops, social gatherings, and community events. Its programming includes everything from book clubs and Mahjong nights to healing circles and other gatherings designed to encourage connection.
The philosophy behind the space is summed up in its tagline: “Live beneath the noise.” It’s an invitation to step away from the pace of everyday life, and to make time for yourself and for the people around you.
Why check it out? Whether you’re looking for a new morning ritual, a wellness class, a place to meet friends, or simply a quiet spot to enjoy a thoughtfully made drink, SOULwell offers a fresh take on the neighborhood café.
Elizabeth Azadi: Art, Color and Creativity on Cookman Avenue
Asbury Park has long been known for its creative spirit, and a new gallery and studio is adding another colorful chapter to the city’s art scene.
Artist Elizabeth Azadi has opened her studio and gallery at 200 Cookman Avenue, where visitors can experience her work in an intimate setting and, when she’s working, see her create in real time.
Azadi’s paintings are vibrant, expressive, and full of movement, combining bold colors, energetic brushwork, recognizable figures, faces, and floral elements with abstract forms. Her background in fashion design brings another layer to her work, with a strong emphasis on color, composition, and structure.
Her journey to Asbury Park is part of the story, too. Originally from Iran, Azadi came to the United States as a refugee and followed in her father’s footsteps as an artist. After working in fashion design and pursuing fine art, her relationship with Asbury Park grew through a gallery partnership during the pandemic. What began as an opportunity to exhibit her work eventually became something much more permanent.
Now, her creative presence is expanding beyond the gallery. Azadi is also working on a large-scale mural for the Surfhouse AP development on Kingsley Street, bringing her distinctive style into the public spaces of Asbury Park.
Why check it out? A visit to Azadi’s studio is more than a chance to see artwork. It offers a glimpse into the creative process and an opportunity to meet the artist behind the work.
Three More Reasons to Explore Asbury Park
Asbury Park has always been a city that embraces reinvention, and these three new additions reflect that spirit in very different ways.
Asbury Social brings dining, music, cocktails, and nightlife together in a reimagined waterfront setting. SOULwell offers a new approach to coffee, wellness, and community. And Elizabeth Azadi’s gallery and studio adds another creative destination to Cookman Avenue.
Three different experiences, all adding something new to the city, and all worth discovering for yourself.
