Bridgeport welcomes Sojourn Fermentory

Published 9:00 am Thursday, October 10, 2024

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Last week, Suffolk gave a warm welcome to a new addition to the Bridgeport community. 

The city of Suffolk welcomed the opening of Sojourn Fermentory with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, Oct. 4, at1400 Bridgeport Way, Suite 103. Sojourn Fermentory joins the area’s mixed-use development, offering a space for Suffolk residents to gather with family and friends. As well as their craft beer, Sojourn provides pizza and other food offerings and plans to host weekly events such as trivia, live music in the near future, including seasonal events such as the Oktoberfest celebration on Oct. 26. During the ceremony, Sojourn Fermentory Co-Founder Scott Osborne talked about the brewery’s name.

“The name is Sojourn, and it means ‘a temporary stay’ and what we’re trying to create is a space for people to come and stay to create human relationships or human flourishing,” Osborne said. “I deeply care about the community and people’s lives and flourishing, and I believe the quality of our life is determined by the quality of our relationships.”

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Osborne, alongside fellow Co-Founders Jinson Chan and Michael Pawley, also donated $1,000 of proceeds to Josh Jones of Neighborhood, an economic empowerment workforce development nonprofit during the ceremony. Mayor Michael Duman also gave remarks, calling Sojourn “an awesome addition to Bridgeport.”

“I don’t think you can get any better…” Duman said. “I can tell just from what you’re doing right here that you are going to be an outstanding corporate partner, and that’s one of the other things that makes our city so great. We got our citizens, but we also have our business community.” 

After the ceremony and a brief tour of the brewery, Pawley and Chan both had a chance to talk about the big moment for them and staff. Pawley thanked attendees and city officials for their support while Chan expressed how he was “beyond humbled” for the moment.

“Because we’ve been working on this project for a long time and finally, we get to get it open and cut the ribbon,” Chan said. “And what’s exciting about this is today is the day where we have the local government and community also just together over beer and some food, and we are super excited about the whole event.”

Pawley talked about bringing the project together. Reflecting back to when COVID-19 hit, Pawley says he was at a “big pivot point” in his career and Chan helped to push him in the right direction to “do his own thing.”

“I’ve been brewing for about 10 years at that point, [at] various levels. Literally, I traveled the world to do that,” Pawley said. “…We kind of like, we meandered throughout the areas around here, looking for somewhere and honestly, the big selling point here was the community around here, and then the city itself. The city really seemed keen on supporting our project, just in terms of taking our calls, helping us figure out what’s going on in the area, ensuring that we weren’t going to run any major hurdles in the front end…”

Noting a lot of great communities to pick from, Pawley detailed why they chose Bridgeport, discussing the space they have.

“We have a huge family focus area in the corner, and then we also have the indoor-outdoor beer garden. And then, around here, there’s really nothing like this,” he said. “So we kind of want to plant a new flag as opposed to going to a city that already has a lot of breweries, cideries, that kind of concept. Do our own thing and do it somewhere unique that kind of has a greater need for that, so that people can rally around that.”

Noting his travels to learn how to brew, Pawley expressed wanting to have an “upscale European-influenced bar.” Likewise, he discussed the importance of having a family-friendly area. 

“I have young kids, so I know there’s a huge need for that, for places that are comfortable and have a space with intentionality for that. I feel like a lot of times, what happens is that that becomes a primary customer group, but there’s no there’s no intent. So there’s just kids running around making a bad experience for everyone else,” he said. “So with that, we wanted to bring all these elements together to give a vehicle to give world class hospitality, first and foremost. What’s more important to me than the quality of the beer and even the quality of the food, is the quality of experience.”

Chan expressed the Sojourn team wanting to embrace the Suffolk community.

“We’ll welcome anybody to stop by and join us, whether it be their family, or themselves, or with a pet. We create a space for everybody,” Chan said. “So this is the place for everybody to enjoy everything you can and hang out with your friends.”

Likewise, Pawley says he’s been amazed with all the people he’s met so far within the community.

“I feel like this is a great area, you get kind of a really good crossover mix, which is great to see. I love when the military guys come through, and they’re like, ‘I was stationed in Germany,’ you know? And that experience. And then also with the younger crowd, there’s a lot of people who I’ve seen who are like, ‘I don’t like beer, but I like that.’ Those are the greatest compliments, in my mind, just super flattering,” Pawley said. “And so yeah, that’s been a great experience. And so yeah, I’m looking forward to more of that.”