Nearby 2nd Floor Restaurant Is A Promise Fulfilled

By Christopher Sheldon

Long Branch resident Sam Nativo's passion, 2nd Floor Restaurant, began with a promise from his partner in business and life, Michael Bienz.

The West End restaurant is located at 71 Brighton Ave., directly above Nativo's other business, Mix Lounge and Food Bar, and opened after one of the most difficult parts of his life.

Nativo was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma in March, 2011 in his bone marrow and spleen. He said if he hadn't gotten treatment with, he wouldn't have lived to see the summer. 

He said the chemotherapy treatments were very hard and that he felt like giving up at times because of the severity of the side effects and physical toll it took on his body.

"Every side effect that they said could happen, happened, and midway through I wanted to give up," Nativo said.

It was then while undergoing treatment that Nativo realized that he wanted to start cooking again if he could get through the treatment. Bienz told him that he needed to do one thing for him to help his partner fulfill his wish.

"The deal was that if I keep forging through, Michael would make this restaurant happen," Nativo said. 

After six months, Nativo's cancer was in remission, and a year later Bienz kept his promise and 2nd Floor Restaurant was ready to go.

"This is very important to me," Nativo said. "It was a very dark time and this pulled me out of it and I really enjoy it."

The 28-seat restaurant opened in December, 2012, and is now open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. 

Nativo said limited hours are because of the fact that he is the only one doing the cooking each night and because he wanted people who dine at the restaurant to feel like they are getting a home-cooked meal.

"It's about people coming to my home for dinner and enjoying it," Nativo said. "It's friends over for dinner each night. I wear a long sleeve shirt and a bandanna while I cook,  don't wear a chef's coat, because that's not what it's all about."

Nativo describes his cuisine as "eclectic American."

"Most of the dishes I put on the menu are from my history, dishes I learned from other chefs or family recipes," he said. "It's things I've enjoyed or experienced and I'm just recreating them. Almost every dish has a story."

He said his lobster macaroni and cheese is a favorite of diners as is his grilled octopus, which is the restaurant's top seller. 

The menu also features dishes such as hanger steak, chilean sea bass and slow roast 1/2 duck. 

He said the fact that he owns Mix Lounge and Food Bar helps him do things the way he wants upstairs.

"Downstairs is my business, upstairs is my passion" he said. "The support from the community, the town and neighbors is wonderful.

He said he does not advertise his business and that its popularity is through word-of-mouth. 

"People walk up and say, 'you would never know this is here'," Nativo said. "That's the part I love the best, I love people's faces when they first walk in."

Check out 2nd Floor Restaurant's menu by clicking here and follow it on Facebook.

The restaurant is open from 5-10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so reservations are highly recommended.