Ask anyone who's spent forty-five minutes waiting for a table at Mezcal this summer whether Old Bridge finally has a real restaurant scene, and they'll tell you yes, then immediately compare it to whatever's happening a few miles up Route 516 at Elizabeth's Italian. The conversation usually turns into a debate about which one is better, which one is harder to get into, which one has the better patio.
It's the wrong debate. Both restaurants are owned by the same person, run by the same executive chef, and built off the same playbook. Understanding that changes how you should actually think about Route 516 this year.
One Restaurant Group, Two Big Bets on the Same Road
Matthew Borowski, who also owns 618 Restaurant, opened Mezcal in 2025 at 292 Route 516 as a modern Mexican steakhouse, and it became an instant hot spot, with reservations tightly coveted among locals chasing the food, the drinks, and the ambiance. In June 2026, Borowski's team took over the former Grillestone space at 2658 Route 516, a spot that had closed abruptly in 2025, and turned it into Elizabeth's Italian, officially opening to the public on June 24, 2026.
Same operator. Same road. Two different cuisines a few miles apart, both under the banner of Borowski's Death of Hospitality group, a name pulled from his own book on the restaurant industry. That's not two restaurateurs racing each other for Old Bridge's dinner crowd. That's one group deciding Route 516 was worth staking twice.
| Mezcal | Elizabeth's Italian | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 292 Route 516 | 2658 Route 516 |
| Opened | 2025 | June 24, 2026 |
| Concept | Modern Mexican steakhouse | Upscale Italian, kid-friendly |
| Known for | Reservations locals fight over | Patio programming and a viral cocktail moment |
The Same Kitchen Is Behind Both Menus
The connective tissue isn't just ownership. Executive chef Chris Dutka, who built his reputation at 618 and Mezcal, now runs the kitchen at Elizabeth's Italian too. His grandmother Mary's meatball recipe, already a fixture at his earlier restaurants, shows up again on Elizabeth's menu as part of a starter called The Holy Trinity, a tower of meatballs, short rib arancini, and fried calamari served with fried pickles and cherry pepper aioli. The bread program leans on a sesame semolina loaf served with olive oil mixed with Grana Padano and spices, the kind of detail that reads like a chef repeating what already worked rather than reinventing from scratch.
That matters if you're deciding where to eat this week. You're not choosing between two unrelated kitchens with different standards. You're choosing between two rooms run by the same person with the same quality checks, which is a big part of why both places filled up fast instead of one succeeding and the other struggling to find an audience.
What the Patio Actually Runs Like Right Now
Elizabeth's opened its patio the same day the restaurant went public, and the programming has been specific enough that it's worth knowing the actual schedule rather than guessing:
- Wednesdays are Spritz & Social, with a DJ playing 7 to 10 p.m. and $10 Aperol Spritzes or a $39 Spritz Tower Service for the table
- Happy Hour runs Sunday through Thursday, 50 percent off select drinks and apps at the bar
- The patio holds about 20 tables plus a dedicated Aperol Spritz mobile bar that stays open through the summer months
- Seating is first come, first served all summer, so there's no waitlist app to check before you drive over
Regular hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m., and Sunday from 2 to 9 p.m., with Mondays closed. If you're trying to time a visit around the DJ set, Wednesday evening is the move.
The drink menu leans into the same instinct that made Mezcal a draw: cocktails built to be photographed. The Stiletto arrives in stiletto-shaped glassware with a tableside spritz of orange essence. Da-Ga-Ba-Gool is a vodka cocktail served with crispy capicola pinned to the glass and a shot of limoncello on the side. It's the kind of menu built for a crowd that already expects a show, because that crowd was trained on Mezcal first.
Elizabeth's also had its own viral moment early on, when a post from NJ.com about the restaurant drew pushback from the team, who called it inaccurate and turned the disagreement into a short-lived $7 frozen tiramisu espresso martini special. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of local flare-up that tells you this group knows how to turn a controversy into a reason to show up that weekend.
Old Bridge Isn't the Only Town in the Portfolio
Route 516 isn't the only place Borowski's group has been building. He's also become a partner and franchising operator for Jersey Freeze, and the brand's third location opened in Colts Neck in August 2025. That's a different kind of bet, a nostalgic ice cream chain rather than a chef-driven concept, but it shows the same pattern: this is a group actively expanding across central New Jersey, and Old Bridge landed two of its more ambitious plays on the same road.
For residents, that's the part worth sitting with. This isn't a single restaurant that got lucky. It's an operator with a track record of opening places that hold onto their audience, testing formats across towns, and choosing to double down on Route 516 specifically rather than spreading Old Bridge investments thin. If a third concept shows up on that stretch of road next year, it won't be a surprise. It'll be the same group doing what it's already done twice.
So the next time someone tries to get you to pick a side between Mezcal and Elizabeth's Italian, the honest answer is that you're not choosing a winner. You're choosing which night of the week you'd rather spend on Route 516, because both restaurants are already on the same team.
If you're the kind of Old Bridge resident who tracks which corners of town are actually changing, that instinct carries over well beyond dinner reservations. The Tully Group watches these same shifts block by block across Monmouth County, and if you're ever curious what a changing local scene means for your own home's value, get your free home valuation and market plan whenever you're ready.
