Nov. 2—It's "home stretch, crunch time scramble" at Tox Brewing Co. as co-owner Mike Zaccaro expects to open the new tap room/coffee shop on Bank Street in New London within the next two weeks while closing down the much smaller ongoing brewery operation on Broad Street.
Zaccaro, who originally estimated the new Tox location would be opening during the late spring or early summer, said there have been a whole series of delays as the nanobrewery awaited state licenses and local approvals for various aspects of its operation, which will include a cannery and a downstairs speakeasy. The final step will be transferring its uptown permit to the downtown location.
"I haven't committed to a date because we don't want to do that until we have permits in hand," he said when I visited the new location Wednesday. "So the plan is to turn off our permit uptown at midnight one day, okay, and then have it go live here the next day."
Zaccaro said the likely open date will be on a Wednesday or Thursday.
"And then if that goes well, Friday or Saturday of that week we'll have a public opening which we'll announce and promote as much as we can," he said. "And then once we get our sea legs, you know, once we get our bearings we'll probably have an actual grand opening party."
Zaccaro and partner Dayne Laskey currently occupy the 1,400-square-foot former Jacques Fruit building on Broad Street, with about 500 square feet reserved for their taproom. The new Tox location at The Riverbank building developed by High Tide Capital of Bangor, Maine, will include a 6,000-square-foot tap room on the main floor, which includes a pizza oven along one wall as well as a soda fountain attached to the bar.
Out back, the brewing operation is surrounded by glass, allowing customers to view the six-tank fermentation and two-tank finishing process in real time. Tox will have a range of products on hand, including ales, lagers and IPAs, and the new operation's 500-gallon tanks are about three times the size of the equipment used on Broad Street.
Zaccaro said the last few weeks have been concentrating on hiring staff, and just last week the food services manager agreed to come on as well as the coffee house manager.
"Actually, we had a big all hands Zoom meeting last night to kind of start preparing for the opening," Zaccaro said Wednesday. "We've had a lot of interest and excitement about working here."
One of the few last details will include getting a certificate from the Ledge Light Health District to begin operations.