Distillery Tasting Room Opening In Downtown Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A new distillery is opening its tasting room in downtown Toms River, offering what its owners call "a relentless, no-nonsense approach to craft spirits to Ocean County."

Battle Grounds Distilling is a craft spirits producer "dedicated to authentic, high-quality whiskey and an advanced culinary approach to cocktail creation," the distillery said in a news release.

It is slated to open to the public on Aug. 7, said Tracy Bacon, one of the owners.

It is opening in the space between Battle River Brewing's outdoor patio and Capone's Gourmet Pizza and Pasta on Washington Street, the spot previously occupied by Garden State Distillery.

"Battle Grounds isn’t just pouring standard well drinks," Bacon said. "The opening lineup features a heavy-hitting roster of meticulously blended and proofed spirits, showcasing a wide variety of ages and flavor profiles across our premium bourbons and ryes" that are part of "an uncompromising lineup of aged spirits, exclusive cask-strength releases."

The tasting room also will offer a highly elevated, prep-intensive cocktail program.

Future plans included expanding the selection of whiskeys and aged spirits, Bacon said, and the distillery plans "a steady rollout of new expressions and experimental finishes in the months following the grand opening, ensuring there is always something new to discover behind the bar."

In addition, the distillery will have a "Director’s Cut" bar program.

"This is an extensively detailed, culinary-driven cocktail experience where absolutely everything, from the fat-washed spirits to the complex botanical shrubs and syrups, is crafted entirely in-house," she said.

The cocktail menu will be seasonal, she said. They are starting with the Tarantino Collection, inspired by the film director, and that menu includes the Black Mamba, made with vanilla chocolate vodka and coconut cold brew, finished with an N2O-charged coconut instant coffee whip, as the espresso martini variation, and the savory GOGO Tears, consisting of tomatillo vodka, house-made tomato shrub, and a fiery jalapeno sriracha Worcestershire. The program also features a selection of highly engineered draft cocktails built for absolute precision.

They also offer mocktails for those who want to enjoy the atmosphere but don't care to drink.

The distillery is owned by four women whose partners started Battle River Brewing, which opened in August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The brewery has grown to become a significant part of the community.

"We are all very happy for them and what they accomplished," the women who own the distillery said. "The only issue was we are not the biggest beer fans. We are whiskey girls. We actually love spirits of all kinds. We recognized the gap in the market for spirits led by women for women, particularly among whiskey enthusiast like ourselves," they say on the distillery's website.

The women "leveraged their passion for spirits with the support and knowledge of the alcohol value chain from their partners into the Battle Grounds Distilling brand under Whiskey4Women," the website says.

Like Battle River Brewing, the name Battle Grounds Distilling was chosen to reflect the Revolutionary War history of downtown Toms River, they said.

That includes Joshua Huddy, a captain in the Continental Army and who was later a privateer and is remembered for his death at the hands of Loyalist forces in 1782, the distillery website notes. Huddy was captured by British loyalists and executed in retaliation for the death of a British officer, and his execution sparked outrage and retaliation from the Patriots.

"All the names and images of the spirits (offered at Battle Grounds Distilling) will reflect this history," the website says.