Pēpe Kitchen

After SALT Steakhouse redefined upscale kosher dining at the Jersey Shore, David Mizrahi wanted its opposite number two doors down: Pēpe Kitchen, a casual Italian eatery at 15 Morris Ave in Pier Village where the same beach crowd can walk in wet-haired for Neapolitan pizza. Same family, same standards — Cholov Yisroel and Pas Yisroel, with Bishul Sephardim on request — but a completely different temperature.

Where SALT is an event, Pēpe had to be an everyday habit: kids’ menu, outdoor seating, a slice on the walk back from the beach. The brand voice — “Rome sweet home” — set the design direction: warm, playful, Italian without costume.

The room reads like a European corner café dropped a block from the Atlantic. French bistro chairs in a navy-and-white weave gather around pale oak tables; storefront glass keeps the Pier Village foot traffic part of the scenery. Raw concrete walls carry slatted pale-wood panels and perforated-steel screens, a red neon PIZZA sign burns against the grey, and brass dome pendants drop low over the pizza counter where the boxes stack in view.

Every move is calibrated against the formality next door: where SALT goes black marble and salt brick, Pēpe goes daylight, rattan, and a palm-print accent wall. Two rooms, one family, no confusion about which door you are walking into.

The menu’s craft is staged as part of the interior: house-made pasta sheets run through the extruder in view, dough is worked by hand, and the wood-topped counters double as the theater seats. It is the same cooking-as-display logic we built into SALT, translated from dry-aging fridge to flour bin.

Pēpe opened in 2024 and settled straight into the Pier Village routine — a beach-day default for kosher families across the tri-state area and the fourth concept in a growing hospitality family that runs from SALT and Salt Gourmet Market to Bubbie’s Cafe and the seasonal LBK Grill. See the flagship next door: SALT Steakhouse.