A portion of the addition would allow for open-air dining overlooking Monmouth Street. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Just over a year after changing hands, Red Bank’s Teak restaurant is blowing through the roof.
The Monmouth Street eatery, with an Asian-fusion menu, has filed a request at the borough planning and zoning office to add a second story with both indoor and outdoor tables.
“My vision is to bring a little bit of Broad Street to Monmouth Street,” says vocal downtown promoter George Lyristis, who with his brothers Taso and Charlie own the Bistro at Red Bank and Zoe in Little Silver. They bought Teak last year with a group that includes Bon Jovi bandmember David Bryan.
The new level would include 1,340 square feet of year-round indoor dining, plus 1,545 SF of outdoor seating above a dining room that is now largely open on three sides in good weather thanks to large windows.
According to a disclosure statement filed with the plan, Lyristis and his brothers own 40 percent of the business; Bryan and his wife, Alexandra, own 30 percent; and Gregory and Clark Maloof own the remaining 40 percent.
The group acquired Teak in May, 2011. At the time, Lyristis said he “didnt want to see another domino fall, and that he was concerned that the restaurant would fail, leaving another gaping hole in the downtown streetscape in the way Ashes Cigar Bar did on Broad Street. That space is now under renovation for use by tenant Char Steakhouse, which plans to open in September.
Lyristis said the present Teak is in need of a makeover, and that he wants the remodeled restaurant to be “the crown jewel of Monmouth Street,” with eye-catching table umbrellas on the upper deck.
No hearing date for the proposal has yet been scheduled. A parking variance may be needed.
