This summer and fall, two charcuterie companies are swapping places on Kings Highway. Gather To Graze announced in July that it is leaving Mullica Hill for a storefront at 1252 Kings Highway. About seven weeks later, Acts of Graze announced it is leaving 1454 Kings Highway for a bigger space in downtown Pitman.
The swap tells you what downtown Swedesboro does for small food businesses. The borough's main street is where a caterer that grew up in a shared kitchen gets a real storefront with a front window. For some of them, it's also where they learn they need more room than the borough has.
Two Graze Companies, One Stretch of Road
Gather To Graze has been open about six years, and owner Karen and her team are known across South Jersey for their grazing boards, Graze Boxes, and Graze Tables. In Mullica Hill, the shop at 69 North Main Street served as both a commercial kitchen and a pickup spot for pre-ordered catering. The business mostly worked on an order-ahead basis.
The Swedesboro storefront changes that. The larger space lets the business take walk-in customers, with grab-and-go individual Graze Boxes, sandwiches, salads, and other lunch items alongside the catering menu. Karen told 42Freeway she had outgrown the Mullica Hill space long ago and had been looking for a new home for several years.
Gather To Graze used to share a building and a kitchen with Amici Bakery in Mullica Hill. Amici is also moving to a larger location. Alexis of Amici described what happened next:
"As our businesses grew, we needed more space. Each needing our own kitchens, we ended up in different towns. While I stayed in Mullica Hill, Karen found an awesome space in Swedesboro."
The July report said the team would leave Mullica Hill by August 15 and expected to reopen in August. As of early October, we haven't found a published confirmation that the Swedesboro shop has opened, and the company's website still lists the Mullica Hill address. Check the business's social pages for the official reopening date before you plan a lunch stop.
Why 1252 Kings Highway Made Sense
The new storefront most recently housed a CPA office. It has a classic small-town facade with large front windows and a centered entrance. What matters most is who's nearby. The 42Freeway report and the company's own announcement name these neighbors:
- The pastry shop next door. Gather To Graze called the bakery next door friends and pitched pairing a grazing board with fresh pastries in one stop. Sweetsboro Pastry Shoppe at 1302 Kings Highway is owner Karen Morrison's shop. Its specialty is custom cakes for weddings, graduations, and anniversaries, and its cases hold cookies, pies, turnovers, sticky buns, and bread.
- Petals & Paints Florist, also named as a neighbor.
- Cocks in a Box, the locally owned cocktail-mixer company. It sells mixers made with local ingredients for craft drinks at home. The shop is open Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- BLK SHP and The Red Hen, directly across Kings Highway from the new shop.
That block can now cover most of a party: the board, the cake, the flowers, and the drink mixers. 42Freeway called the four shops a one-stop destination for planning a celebration. A larger caterer moving in strengthens a cluster that was already there.
A Step, Not Always a Finish Line
Acts of Graze shows the next part of the pattern. Owner Melissa Mangiaracina started the business five years ago in a shared kitchen in Washington Township. She later opened at 1454 Kings Highway in Swedesboro. The next home is 29 S. Broadway in Pitman, the former Mama Marie's Italian Market. There she plans more classes and workshops, private events, and celebrations, along with the grazing tables and boards the company is known for.
As of the August 27 report, the Pitman space still needed renovation, and no move date had been announced. We also haven't found any word on what will go into 1454 Kings Highway.
The two companies made the same move in opposite directions. Each one outgrew a shared or limited kitchen, and each needed a bigger storefront to sell more directly to the public. Kings Highway was where one of them ended up and where the other got its start.
Not every plan along the street works out. Munch N Chew, a soul food concept run as a division of Catering by Sheriese, had planned a takeout shop next door to Cocks in a Box in the former Tesoro Macron Company space. A July 2026 update said that opening is off and that the business is still looking for a brick-and-mortar home.
Some additions are simpler. La Sabrosita Ice Cream & Snacks opened at 1422 Kings Highway with a borough ribbon-cutting on Sunday, June 14. Council members JoAnna Gahrs and Dave Flaherty attended.
The Sit-Down Anchors on the Same Blocks
Small shops can make a go of a downtown storefront partly because the street already brings people in for dinner. Here is the corridor in address order, from the church to the graze shop that's leaving:
| Address on Kings Highway | Place | What it's known for |
|---|---|---|
| 1208 | Trinity Episcopal "Old Swedes" Church | Historic congregation, community outreach |
| 1252 | Gather To Graze | Announced move-in; boards, boxes, lunch to go |
| 1302 | Sweetsboro Pastry Shoppe | Custom occasion cakes, daily pastry cases |
| 1342 | Cocks in a Box | Cocktail mixers made with local ingredients |
| 1411 | Botto's Italian Line Restaurant and Market | Italian dining room, lounge, market |
| 1422 | La Sabrosita Ice Cream & Snacks | Opened June 2026 |
| 1423 A | Thymari Mediterranean Gastro-Taverna | Greek and Mediterranean, BYOB |
| 1454 | Acts of Graze | Moving to Pitman; date not announced |
Botto's is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Executive chef Enrico Botto's menu features meat, fresh seafood, poultry, and pasta. The lounge or outdoor patio often has free entertainment. Next door, Thymari's owners are Maria Kotanidis Pechlivanidis and her husband, Kleo. A 2025 review recommended the chicken souvlaki for first-timers and the Anatolian kabobs of beef and lamb for something richer. It also praised the grilled octopus over fava and the Milfey, a filo pastry layered with vanilla cream. That review said Thymari is open six days a week and closed Mondays.
Across from the new graze shop, BLK SHP serves tapas and has a bar, with indoor dining, pickup, and delivery. The Red Hen is a family-style lunch and dinner spot that also offers takeout and delivery. As of this month, both are listed in South Jersey Food Scene's Frequent Diner program, along with Sweetsboro and Cocks in a Box.
Old Swedes, at the Low End of the Numbers
At 1208 Kings Highway, Trinity Episcopal "Old Swedes" Church predates every business in the table above. A September New Town Press feature on the church's USA 250 tribute recalled that King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden visited in 1976 during the Bicentennial. The feature also noted that the congregation still holds Santa Lucia, a youth pageant with candle processions. Visitors still travel to Swedesboro to trace their roots in the church archives.
The church also feeds people, which fits this stretch of street. Senior warden Bob Fitz told the paper that members recently made 120 hoagie packs for St. Paul's Camden Food Ministry. The church also supports a new Baby Box program in Swedesboro that gives infant care supplies to new parents, and donations can be dropped off during Sunday services. The church homepage listed another sandwich-wrapping session after worship on Sunday, October 4.
A Fall Calendar With Two Blanks in It
The street's biggest day of the year has no date right now. Swedesboro Day is the annual Kings Highway festival with vendors, live music, food, and a car show. It was set for September 26 but was postponed because of severe weather. Historic Swedesboro's September 25 update lists the new date as TBD, so watch the official Swedesboro Day website and Facebook page. The swedesboroday.com homepage still shows September 26, but that date is out of date.
These dates are set:
- Fall at Dalton Farms runs through November 1. The farm is open Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in October, with a pumpkin patch, corn maze, U-pick sunflowers, and tractor rides. Apple cannons and a paintball shooting gallery are new this year and cost extra.
- The Great Pumpkin Glow at Dalton Farms runs through October 31. It opens after the daytime festival closes and needs a separate ticket.
- Community Shredding Event, Saturday, November 7, 9 a.m. to noon, at Swedesboro Auction Park, 101 Leahy Avenue. It's open to Swedesboro and Woolwich residents.
- Annual Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting, Saturday, November 28. The parade steps off at 1 p.m. on downtown Kings Highway, and the tree lighting is at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall.
The second blank is Holiday Sip & Shop. Participating businesses offer drinks and treats along Kings Highway from Railroad Avenue to Ashton Avenue, but the borough still lists the date and time as TBD. That walk would pass the bakery, the mixer shop, and the new graze storefront, if Gather To Graze is open by then.
If you're watching which storefronts on Kings Highway change hands, or wondering what an empty space like 1454 might become, the Pat Settar team follows these blocks closely and is glad to talk through what's happening downtown. Contact us any time.
