A culinary-trained cocktail creator’s blend of passion, precision, and playfulness has made Brothers Daley a Shore hotspot

BY KT HARRISON · PHOTOS BY ALEX BARRETTO

Think back… “back to that tucked-away bar or side-street bistro, the one where you instantly felt at home,” instructs Rachel Meatto, beverage director of Brothers Daley restaurant. “Maybe it was in New York, or Europe, or just some place you wandered into,” she said. “You felt so welcome there, and the drinks were the best ever. Since then, you’ve been hoping to recapture that comfort, that magic, somewhere.” At Brothers Daley, you’re very likely to encounter that enchantment right here in Sea Bright.

Just being at this lively and lovely restaurant is a mood-changer. Its numerous indoor-outdoor spaces accommodate romantics, or friends, or party people, or families. Brothers Daley’s spacious courtyard, lined with imported cypress trees and heated year-round, transforms an upper Shore barrier peninsula into a breezy Aegean isle. Choose your perch, feel your mood climb, and wonder if perhaps tonight will prove your perfect evening out. Now take a moment to peruse the cocktail menu. Surrender to the seduction and let your expectations soar, because Meatto’s uplifting drinks jumpstart joy.

This master mixologist’s cocktail signatures – harmony and originality – suffuse her numerous creations for each of the restaurant’s five menu seasons: spring, summer, fall, holiday, winter. She designed her current, vodka-based Whitecaps sipper “as a celebration of early fall’s new-school-year excitement, which stays with us,” she said. Somehow, Whitecaps (recipe below) indeed captures Indian summer’s intrigue with glimmers of honeyed fruit, sunny citrus, and lightly autumn-spiced pear.

Though only 34, Meatto has been bartending and brainstorming cocktails for over a dozen years. Born in our Garden State and raised in the Lone Star State, the self-described “eternal Jersey Girl” returned to her hometown of Asbury Park after years of culinary school in Houston. “My key takeaway was that the meaning of hospitality is making your guests feel good,” she noted. “Cocktail creation is, for me, pure hospitality. And I find that even for a trained chef, it’s as complex a challenge as cooking.” Focusing her technical expertise and flavor savvy on drinks, Meatto steadily climbed the bartending ladder in Asbury Park, rising “from the harried barback scurrying around to the bartender perfecting popular drinks to the beverage manager inventing new cocktails,” she said. When restaurateurs Keith & Jackie Brothers and Eileen Groom opened Brothers Daley, they knew the Shore’s queen of quaffs was the one to run their bar program.

These days, the only ladder Meatto climbs is the tall, rolling library ladder that accesses the vast inventory of spirits, liqueurs, and wines at Brothers Daley’s main bar. (“We’re truly top-shelf,” she jokes.) Her “spirits library” houses hundreds upon hundreds of globally-sourced, distinctive bourbons, whiskies, vodkas, rums, tequilas, mezcals, liqueurs, you name it.

Today, 23 pages of the restaurant’s 24-page menu is devoted to cocktails, spirits, and wine. The first page presents chef John Niederer’s jaunty menu of contemporary classics reinvented with an ingenious twist. (Think chicken nuggets with caviar, shrimp toastie, seasonal handmade pasta, or crème brulée…cake).

“We’re genuinely soulful,” Groom said. “You know the term ‘craft cocktails,’ as in handmade. Well, Rachel’s cocktails are crafted from the heart, with the guest’s pleasure in mind.”

At Meatto’s bar, you’ll want to spend some time with your glass. Here are her tasting tips: “We all know to swirl and sip wine and sense its flavors,” she noted. “But there’s a cocktail strategy, too.” First, she said, know your drink’s building blocks, so you can chase their flavors: the spirit, the fruits, the herbs and spices. Then, taste with intent. “Every sip of a cocktail evolves like a good story, with a beginning, middle, and end,” Meatto said. “It starts with your sip. For full flavor, let it coat your tongue to reach its varied taste receptors. What flavors, what sensations, do you pick up?” Next, “take a slow swallow, which will have a different character.” The wrap-up is the post-swallow “finish.” This is “the final impression the drink leaves behind, its innate personality and aura,” she said.

Whatever you order and however you drink it, Brothers Daley’s Shore status as a worthy night out is a toast to Meatto’s mixology mastery.

“After three years, we’ve become a total experience of food, drink and community,” Groom said. “The cocktails may be what bring people through the door, but it’s the energy and connection around the bar that make them stay. That sense of community is really what Brothers Daley is about.”

Brothers Daley’s Whitecaps (for two, with a wink to The Sopranos)
2 oz. Vodka (Meatto likes Ketel One) · 1 1/2 oz. St. George Spiced Pear liqueur · 1 1/2 oz. Lillet Rosé or dry vermouth · 1 oz. Lychee purée, juice, or can liquid · 1 oz. Lemon juice · 1/2 oz. Simple syrup (1:1 sugar and water). Shake over ice. Strain twice. Pour into rocks glass with oversized ice cube. Garnish with pear slice or twist of lemon peel.

Brothers Daley — 1124 Ocean Ave, Sea Bright — 848.828.9326 / brothersdaley.com