Socializing on the rooftop at Teak with a cool Yellow Fever #2 cocktail. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

By SUSAN ERICSON

Starting this week and for the rest of the summer, PieHole is giving its What’s For Lunch feature a rest. Instead, we’ll mingling and chilling out on the Greater Red Bank Green, visiting outdoor happy hours and ice cream stands, starting with today’s first stop:  the rooftop at Teak on Monmouth Street in Red Bank.
The bar, open to the rooftop deck, is brimming with a varied happy hour crowd. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

Downstairs, amid the Asian-influenced decor, tables are filled with diners. Upstairs, an enormous garage-style door opens to cool breezes and skyward glances. There’s a bourbon tasting going on in one corner of the outside deck, and several groups are taking advantage of the end of Wednesday happy hour.

The atmosphere is relaxed, with low-lounge seating on a teak deck decorated with palm plants. Dress code is casual: jeans, t-shirts and fresh-from-the-office wear. Thumping rock music inside and out sets a raucous background beat that makes conversation a little tricky.

Bartender Ryan Loughran tells us that there will be a live band later in the evening, and that the style of music is “all over the place:” party, club, rock, and on Sunday nights, a tribute band.

Upstairs, happy hour on Wednesday runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with sushi rolls and unique cocktails offered. Our $7 Yellow Fever #2 cocktail is a prime example of why the place is so jam-packed, and maybe why the mood is so festive.

Ingredients such as bourbon, sassafras syrup, white peach puree and fresh ginger fill a tall glass. A skewered slice of pickled ginger lies across the top. The sweet peach mellows out the sharp bite of ginger, while the back essence of root beer conjures cowboys, westerns and grandad’s sarsaparilla.

It’s surprising, refreshing and, like the swarm at the bar, celebratory.

Teak is open downstairs from noon to 7 p.m. for happy hour, Monday through Friday, and until 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. The rooftop bar serves offers happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.  

And if you’re on the hunt for lunch, please check out the What’s For Lunch archive.