A new restaurant and bar from the owners of Cardinal Provisions is coming to Bell Works

Laura Brahn and Grace Crossman, owners of Cardinal Provisions in Asbury Park, will open a second restaurant in 2024.

Mabel, serving "honest, approachable coastal European cuisine," is under construction inside Holmdel's Bell Works. Brahn and Crossman are planning a late spring-early summer opening for the restaurant and bar, which will be open for breakfast, lunch, happy hour and dinner.

The restaurant, which will seat 185 indoor diners plus more on 3,000 square feet of outdoor patio space, will be located near the atrium in the building's main area. It joins nearly a dozen food and drink spots at Bell Works, including Corbo & Sons, Booskderdoo Coffee & Baking Co., Jersey Freeze, Estrella Azul, Mezza Luna, Bar Bella, Honeybell Bakery, Broadfork, Jozu, and Oink and Moo BBQ.

Mabel is much larger than Cardinal, which serves breakfast, brunch and lunch in a small space on Bangs Avenue. But Brahn and Crossman, who met in the kitchen of Asbury Park's Porta, and have long catered large weddings and parties, have been ready to expand for some time.

It just had to be right, they said.

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"We had been hesitant to take on a new project because we wanted to make sure it made total sense for us and what we were ready for, and not a repeat production or trying to re-create Cardinal somewhere else," Brahn said. "We miss some of the aspects of having an all-day, all-night place. We miss our Italian roots. We miss the hospitality of a French spot."

Mabel began as a consulting collaboration in early 2020, then stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, Crossman said, "we came back to a totally different landscape for the restaurant industry. It was kind of a slow start from there, and eventually got enough momentum that we became the main drivers of the project."

The menu will be guided by what the pair have cooked through the years — "a lot of Italian, French food," Brahn said — and "the way we like to eat, a more Mediterranean style."

Diners shouldn't expect American-style bar food, but "bright, punchy flavors and briny bites at the bar, and then a dinner menu that you can build out as either a lighter or a larger meal, in the way that you would any coastal Italian or Spanish (restaurant)," Brahn added.

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Bell Works is home to office space, retail stores, entertainment and performing arts venues, as well as the Holmdel Library and a weekly farmers market. A variety of events are hosted in the building. Mabel, named for Alexander Graham Bell's wife, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, will cater both to employees and visitors.

"A lot of the people in the early part of the day are going to work in that building, so we need to have something available to them, quick things you can grab," said Crossman, adding that one such offering will be her xuixo, a popular pastry at Cardinal. "(And we'll have) something available for people that want to come sit down and have a meal and the full-service experience."

"We consider this a bigger space where you can bring a whole bunch of your friends (like) you can't at Cardinal," Brahn said. "You can have a longer meal. You can dress it up and have a nice steak, or have some nice, small vegetable dishes and a pasta."

Go: Bell Works, 101 Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel; mabelatbell.com. Cardinal Provisions, 513 Bangs Ave., Asbury Park; 732-898-7194, crdnal.com.

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Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com, follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to our Jersey Shore Eats newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore restaurants: Mabel to open at Bell Works in Holmdel