New Mule Barn Tavern On Tip Of Sandy Hook Opens At 11 A.M. Friday

HIGHLANDS, NJ — As of 11 a.m. Friday, there's a new spot in town to enjoy a waterfront lunch or sunset cocktail:

The brand-new Mule Barn Tavern on Sandy Hook will officially open to the public today.

"The time is finally here. Grand Opening TODAY doors open at 11am. We hope to see you all there!" the bar/restaurant announced Friday morning on their Instagram page.

Mule Barn Tavern will be open from 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Friday. Their address is 36 Kearney Rd, Highlands, NJ 07732 Phone: (732) 233-9277 Check out their food menu. Locals who have dined there say you do not need to pay the Sandy Hook entrance fees; just tell the guards at the gate you are going to the restaurant.

The past few days have been a soft opening for friends and family.

This is the building that used to be a barn for mules and horses back when Sandy Hook was the U.S. Army's Fort Hancock base. It has since been converted into a bar/restaurant. Monmouth Beach resident Dan Ferrise is the owner of Mule Barn Tavern, and he is leasing the property from the National Park Service.

This week, Ferrise told the Asbury Park Press he spent the past three and a half years putting in all the work and expense of turning the old animal shed into a tavern. The Asbury Park Press article has lots of photos of inside the bar, or check out their Instagram.

The bar has an outdoor patio overlooking Sandy Hook Bay and will face west.

For more than the past 20 years, the National Park Service, which operates Sandy Hook, has been very eager to find tenants to covert the old U.S. Army buildings into modern-day businesses. McFly's on the Hook general store is open, and plans remain in the works for luxury apartments to be built at the tip of Sandy Hook. (Some, like Middletown Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, R, and Congressman Frank Pallone, D, are fighting the apartments because they say Sandy Hook should remain a park used for open space, nature and recreation — not housing.)

Sea Gull's Nest was a beloved local watering hole inside the park that was destroyed during Superstorm Sandy and never reopened.

Mule Barn Tavern Coming To Tip Of Sandy Hook (April 2023)

Plan For 80+ Apartments On Sandy Hook Moves Forward (May 2023)

Here's the latest on the apartment proposal at Sandy Hook; Stillman is the developer: https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn...