Opened by a father-son duo, the latest addition to Monmouth Park brings a family touch to fine dining. Apéro’s robust menu is a welcome pause from the everyday, one dish at a time

BY ERIK SCHONING · PHOTOS BY ALEX BARRETO

At Monmouth Park racetrack, speed is usually the order of the day. But at a newly opened onsite French steakhouse, helmed by father-son duo Casey and Elvin Kehres, it’s all about slowing down and savoring the good things in life.

Apéro opened in April of this year. Both Casey and Elvin Kehres had managed its predecessor at Monmouth Park, Blue Grotto, and were intimately familiar with the space. Casey Kehres cut his teeth at high-profile spots like David Burke’s Drifthouse and Italian steakhouse Ember & Eagle before deciding it was time to return to Monmouth Park, not to manage someone else’s restaurant but to open his own.

“I wanted to do something a little different with the concept,” Casey Kehres said. “I’ve always loved French wine and food, and there’s just not enough good French restaurants in this area. I thought there was a real opportunity here.”

On opening day, Kehres, with his father onboard as consiglieri, met with his staff to open his first-ever restaurant. Apéro has hit the ground running ever since, opened in conjunction with Pat & Lola’s Garden Bar, its downstairs casual, beer garden-inspired sister restaurant.

With Apéro, Kehres’ concept was simple: take the crowd-pleasing familiarity of the steakhouse, and give it an adventurous French twist. Inspired by the French tradition of the apéritif, he wanted to create an ambiance of slow dining, free from two-hour time limits and the time-is-money approach of so many modern restaurants.

“I chose the name Apéro because in France, that’s the pre-dinner ritual,” Kehres said. “You can go to any café and hang out for four, five hours, and they don’t make you feel rushed. It’s very relaxed. And we’ve just gotten away from that kind of hospitality.”

Kehres chose the perfect space to execute that vision: the classic conservatory dining room at Apéro is an airy retreat from the outside world, replete with French doors, art deco touches and plenty of light. (One of Kehres’ favorite moments is sitting in that dining room and watching snow fall.) If you don’t have a trip to Paris planned, Kehres’s goal is to bring you that same French spirit, right in Monmouth County.

On Apéro’s menu, overseen by Chef Salvatore Capobianco, you’ll find bistro classics like escargot, French onion soup, and moules frites, steamed mussels drenched in a sauce of white wine, shallot and garlic, served with crusty bread and fries. On the sweet end of the spectrum, behold Elvin Kehres’ famous tower of turtles & truffles, a spectacle of a dessert he’s been making for 20 years that now finds its rightful home on the menu of his son’s restaurant. (The towers are also available in take-home assortments, a portion of the proceeds going to pediatric cancer nonprofit Liv Like A Unicorn Foundation.)

Then there is the steak tartare, maybe the most quintissentially bistro dish of them all; in Apéro’s twist ditches the old-fashioned ring mold in favor of cubed (not minced!) wagyu spread out gloriously on the plate. It’s then topped with shallot, cornichon and fried capers for crunch and saltiness; instead of the classic egg yolk, which can overpower the dish, Apéro’s version opts for lighter, yet still silky olive oil.

But sooner or later, the eyes of every guest will drift to the crown jewel of Apéro’s menu, its raison d’être: the prime steak frites. Kehres and Chef Capobianco serve up favorite cuts like filet mignon and bavette alongside a pair of shareable steaks of prehistoric proportion: the bone-in ribeye and the porterhouse. Customization is the name of the game here. Add-on compound butters and sauces abound, and Kehres even has a clever solution to that age-old problem of sharing steaks: temperature preferences.

“Obviously, these cuts are a little large for one person. One person will want rare, and the other medium,” Kehres said. “So we serve it with a Himalayan salt brick, heated to 500 degrees, and people can finish their steaks on the salt brick to whatever temperature they want. The salt adds flavor, it eliminates any kind of compromise, and it’s a fun interactive element.”

Six months in, there’s a lot to look forward to at Apéro. Cooler weather will bring classic northern French dishes to the menu. Kehres plans to introduce more old-school tableside presentations, perhaps crêpes suzette. It’s all part of his vision to build a new kind of French restaurant in Monmouth County, away from the stodgy, overpriced, small-portioned stereotypes of yesteryear.

“We have people who are trying escargot for the first time, and they’re loving it,” Kehres said. “People are excited that there’s something different in the area.”

In opening his first restaurant, Kehres has drawn on lessons learned at every stop along the way. He knows that Apéro’s success, any restaurant’s success, will always come down to hospitality.

“It all comes down to culture,” Kehres said. “We want people to leave here feeling special. We have to let people know we care. They’ll never remember what you say or what you did, but they’ll remember how you make them feel.”

On each menu, Kehres includes a thank-you message from himself and his father. Gratitude has by and large gotten lost in today’s restaurant world. At Apéro, it lives on.

Apéro French Steakhouse — 200 Port Au Peck Avenue, Oceanport / 732-571-7900 / aperonj.com