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.

“I think physically, the building is ready for it,” Zaccaro said. “Everybody’s hired up.”

Inside, Tox’s bar looks ready to go with its funky, space age lighting, and there’s a Pac Man video game in one corner and a cozy seating nook with a couch and arm chairs to one side, with a terrarium with live dart frogs in between. Televisions above the bar are relatively small and will show off the Tox menu rather than airing the latest football games.

“We don’t want to be a sports bar,” Zaccaro said. “We want to be a communal social place.”

Downstairs, the speakeasy is starting to come together, though Zaccaro said that likely will be phase two of the project, not quite ready for opening day. The speakeasy will be available largely for private parties.

Over the past few days, Tox has been brewing beer at its new location, and all the test batches have turned out fine, according to Zaccaro. Tox downtown will offer its own branded beer, along with traditional soda fountain fare and mixed drinks.

Zaccaro had thought of possibly keeping the Broad Street location, but eventually decided against it. The new plan may include subleasing the building to a homebrew shop, he said.

“We'll move a lot of our stuff downtown in the next month and get the space cleared out and cleaned up for them as best I can,” Zaccaro said. “It just seems like we really want to just focus. We have all the potential in the world down here, right here.”

Mayor Michael Passero agreed when I asked him about the Tox opening, which could put New London on the map for New England’s brewpub tourism industry.

“The opening of Tox Brewing on Bank Street could be one of the crowning achievements of 2024,” he said in a phone interview. “I’ve got to admire those guys. What they are doing is huge.”

Lee Howard is The Day’s business editor. To reach him, email l.howard@theday.com.