Michael L. Diamond

@mdiamondapp

ASBURY PARK – Bistro Olé. Synaxis. The Kissing Booth. Ivan and Andy's. All have closed in recent months. Should Asbury Park be worried?

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To hear city business leaders tell it, not in the least. Instead, they say, the slew of closings is more a sign of the restaurant industry's typical turnover than an ominous cloud overhead.

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"I can honestly say I'm not worried," said Tom Gilmour, Asbury Park's director of economic development.

The city's 50 restaurants have been a selling point to visitors, helping to fuel the city's redevelopment. And some of them – Bistro Olé, for example – were pioneers, willing to take a risk when the city still was dogged by widespread blight.

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Visitors say the restaurants have helped Asbury Park carve out a niche by offering independently owned and ethnically diverse businesses.

"It's nice to come to a place that's welcoming," said Victoria O'Brien, 18, of Ocean Grove, who was at America's Cup Coffee Co. with her sister, Alexandra, 17, one day this week.

Notoriously risky

It hasn't been enough, however, to shield restaurants from market forces that have made them notoriously risky businesses. While conventional wisdom has said 90 percent of restaurants close within the first year, a study published in Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly found the figure is closer to 30 percent.

The turnover here in recent months has been rapid. Munch on Cookman Avenue and Aqua Oceanfront Restaurant and Bar in Convention Hall also have closed.

The chatter has even reached Old Man Rafferty's, a New Brunswick-based restaurant that opened a location in the renovated Steinbach building in 2007. It took to its Facebook account to deny rumors that it was closing. It didn't respond to an email from the Asbury Park Press.

Gilmour, however, said the city was thriving this summer. Beach badge revenue is 45 percent higher than last year.

Brisk business

Some restaurant owners said business was brisk.

D.J. Presto and Ron Wendolowski own DJ's on Mattison Avenue. They started with a market in 2010. Then they added a seating area in 2011. And then, last August, they expanded again with a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and – three days a week – dinner.

Presto said he had second thoughts about opening for dinner. But he was more confident after surveying local residents and visitors. "I did what the people wanted," Presto said. "I asked them, they told me, and that was it."

The restaurant industry is unique in one respect: when one closes, there often is another restaurateur waiting in the wings who thinks her or she can make it with a different menu, pricing or atmosphere.

Sure enough, new tenants have emerged. Munch, a breakfast spot, was replaced by Mogo Korean Fusion Tacos. Aqua, in Convention Hall, was replaced by The Anchor's Bend. Carmine's on Main Street was replaced by Brando's Citi Cucina. And Taka, featuring Japanese fusion, is expected to move into Synaxis, said Jacqueline Pappas, executive director of the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce.

"If there was an industry I was most encouraged by and not concerned about, it would be the restaurant industry in Asbury Park," Pappas said.

Michael L. Diamond; 732-643-4038; mdiamond@app.com