Culinary center Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge serves up new heights in hospitality

When Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge first opened its doors in 2013, “it was a leap of faith,” said Founder, Partner, and General Manager Neilly Robinson of the then-fledgling cooking school built on her passion for fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients. 

Four years later, Heirloom Kitchen has evolved into a bustling culinary center comprised of a recreational cooking school, a retail boutique, a weekend farm-to-table restaurant, and a private event facility that’s raising the bar by creating a new level of interactive dining experience.

Growing up in Old Bridge and Marlboro, “I always loved cooking with my mother and grandmother and as I grew I got more astute,” said Robinson, now a resident of Asbury Park. “Having spent 10 years living and working in New York City and being exposed to so many great restaurants, my passion for food and entertaining truly blossomed.”

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Eager to spread her entrepreneurial wings, “I started Heirloom Kitchen four years ago with my mother,” she said. Originally launched as a cooking school, where the two found sponsors to help build out their kitchen, “we teach classes on such topics as basic skills, pasta, bread, and cheese-making, ethnic cooking, gluten-free and vegan cooking, and even classes on dry-aged steaks and ramen,” she said of the 2½- to 3-hour sessions, now comprised of hands-on cooking opportunities with Executive Chef David Viana and his team, followed by a communal meal around their farm table. Typically, 12 to 14 students are accommodated per class. 

Additionally hosting pop-up dinners and private events in their space, Robinson immersed herself in the growing venture and never looked back.

A restaurant is born

Through colleagues in 2015, Robinson met Viana, a fellow advocate of fresh, local, and seasonal fare who’d headed up the kitchens of other restaurants,including Daryl Restaurant and Wine Bar in New Brunswick, The Kitchen at Grove Station in Jersey City, and Barrio Costero in Asbury Park. She invited him in as a guest chef.

“David and I worked extremely well together and as I contemplated Heirloom Kitchen’s future, I knew I definitely wanted him to be part of the equation,” she said of the decision to appoint him the facility’s Executive Chef and to launch Heirloom Kitchen’s new restaurant component in November 2016.

Open for weekend dining for the past year, Heirloom Kitchen is transformed into a 50-seat restaurant with a small seasonal menu every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.  

“We’re not a commercial kitchen but we’ll serve 80 meals on a Saturday night, all prepared using just six burners and two ovens,” Viana said of the restaurant’s popularity — and the streamlined efforts of his sous chef, pastry chef, and a part-time employee on garde manger, with Robinson preparing the restaurant’s daily supply of fresh-made sourdough bread and butter.

“My favorite part of Heirloom Kitchen is that it’s an open space and the kitchen is basically a stage and focal point for the whole restaurant,” Viana said. “Our space has a fun, upscale, casual vibe that’s polished, not pretentious.”

Guests will enjoy the opportunity to watch their food being prepared, especially by a team “who loves food and ingredients as much as we do,” Viana said. “It’s about quality, seasonality, and freshness,” he said of the five-appetizer, five-entrée, three-dessert menu, which includes everything from duck breast with jonny cakes, oatmeal risotto, and persimmon purée to wild boar ragout with toasted fettucine, pickled cherries, and a smoked pine nut crumble and a hydroponic Asian green salad sourced from Thompson Family Farm in Wall.

“For dessert,” he added, “don’t miss our fall-themed Harvest Pavlova, a pumpkin meringue with pickled cranberries, cheesecake mousse, chocolate ganache, and toasted pumpkin seeds, which is decadent but still light.”

The sum of its parts

Hosting three-to-four cooking classes per week and running restaurant operations on weekend nights — which he describes as “the ideal restaurant model” — Viana enjoys the unique opportunities his role presents to cook, teach, and interact with guests.  

“We love to be a resource and help answer questions about food and ingredients and it’s exciting to see people so open to that,” he said. “I also enjoy challenging myself to be creative and try new things.”

According to Robinson, recipes made in the classes often find their way onto the restaurant's menu, a demonstration of the synergy between the facility’s many different activities.

“Heirloom Kitchen is an intimate, informal space which, due to the openness of our kitchen, lends itself to hosting different types of events that you can’t do anywhere else,” added Robinson, who’s extended their space and/or services to support everything from fundraisers for cancer charities and The Food Bank of New Jersey to corporate events and an annual farm-to-table dinner at Hauser Farms in Old Bridge to raise money for Farmers Against Hunger. “We believe strongly in giving back and there’s a huge community aspect to our operations."

Among Viana’s favorite parts of his job, “I love that moment of surprise when guests taste something they love and the instant gratification and happiness it brings,” he said.  “And I love being so close to our customers — it motivates me to continue to work hard to drive new levels of hospitality.”

 The industry will soon recognize Viana’s skills when he presents a solo dinner inspired by New Jersey’s bounty and aptly named ‘Heirloom Holiday’ at The James Beard House in Greenwich Village on Dec. 20.

“I’m passionate about food and feel so honored to be invited to cook there,” Viana said.  “I can’t wait to showcase what Heirloom and the Garden State have to offer.”

“We’re so blessed to have a talented chef like David in our kitchen and in our state,” Robinson added.

For Robinson, who hopes to one day expand on all they’ve built with a second location, some of her greatest rewards have been seeing the dream of Heirloom Kitchen become reality — on their own terms. 

“People love our food and space and we march to the beat of our own drum — that’s what makes us special,” she said. "We’re an out-of-the-box concept and a true underdog story built on passion and full-on collaboration.

“Overall, we want to offer people who love food a place to have an outstanding meal, cooking class, and community experience,” Robinson added. “We hope to be the ultimate ‘culinary center.’ ”

Heirloom Kitchen is at 3853 Route 516 in Old Bridge and can be reached at 732-727-9444 or by visiting heirloomkitchen.com.