Sopchoppy is seeing new businesses
Elliot Seidler celebrated the one-year anniversary of Civic Brewing back in June.
By CHARITY TUMBLESON Reporter
In downtown Sopchoppy along Rose Avenue and at the intersection at Municipal Street, the rural history of the community is reflected through its historic architecture, with some of the buildings more than 100 years old.
The buildings were part of the beginning of Sopchoppy and continue to be part of the future with new businesses that have moved in.
Wakulla’s first ever brewery, Civic Brewing Co., resides in a building on Municipal Street that was built in 1912. It used to serve as the town pharmacy. Civic celebrated its first anniversary in June.
Elliot Seidler, the owner and a native of Sopchoppy, first got into the brewery craft from his sister, Taylor Seidler.
“She was the creative director for the biggest beer mag in the states,” Seidler said. “She took me to my first beer festival, so she’s the one that really got me into it.”
Seidler describes his brewery as “Relaxed and chill. People bring their kids here, and we have bingo night on Wednesdays. It’s a really relaxed environment, and that’s what we’re going for, somewhere where you can just hang out and chat with people.”
Seidler says business is going well, and he has received lots of local support, with over half of his customers being local residents.
The brewery also gets people from out of town, “people staying in campgrounds or just driving through. We get a lot of people from up north and out west, it’s pretty neat,” he says.
Looking into the brewery’s future, Seidler says, “Who knows? Especially with the economic climate we’re in, as long as I keep the taproom open and the lights on, I’m happy. Maybe eventually do another tap room somewhere, but for now, I’m happy where I’m at.”
Seidler can’t wait for the upcoming business in Sopchoppy, a bakehouse and coffeeshop, to open, saying, “I drink a lot of coffee, so just being able to walk over and grab a pastry and a coffee, I’ll be stoked about it.”
The Morgan family: Carolyn Lulu and Joey Morgan, along with their three children, Nolan, Addie, and Hunter.
The future home of the Sopchoppy Bakehouse + Coffee shop was established in 2021 with the purchase of the old bank in downtown Sopchoppy directly next to the Civic Brewery. The building was also built in 1912.
The owners, Carolyn Lulu and Joey Morgan, along with their three children, Nolan, Addie, and Hunter.
Carolyn Lulu says, “Every bit of our journey is a family affair.”
The Morgan family, native to Wakulla, lived in Sopchoppy for five years before moving out of state, “However, moving away only solidified our love for Sopchoppy and the realization that apparently we can’t live anywhere else,” she said. “We are currently building our home in Sopchoppy and ready to bring our family back to where we started. Sopchoppy is quaint, quiet, and has an old calming charm. It’s a small reprieve from the chaotic world that isn’t so far away. We can visit anywhere, but there’s nowhere else to call home.”
Carolyn Lulu grew up in a family with Italian roots, and her grandparents owned a bakery.
“Baking, in general, is something I’ve had a love for early on,” she says.
In 2010 she began baking and catering weddings and events. “It’s been a passion ever since to own my own business.”
Her husband, Joey, has a business degree and an interest in coffee and roasting. “In 2021, we purchased our future shop and merged our ideas to create Sopchoppy Bakehouse + Coffee Co. We’ve known for a long time this is what we were meant to do. Our hearts lie in Sopchoppy, and there’s just no other place to take root.”
There isn’t an official opening date for the shop, but renovations are taking place.
“With a building as old as ours, the renovations seem endless, but progress is being made. Up until this point, all of our projects have been completed solely by Joey, myself, and our little apprentices. It’s truly a labor of love and something we will be proud of.”
Currently, they already provide locally roasted craft coffee by the bag for delivery by communicating through Facebook.
“We are Wakulla County’s first coffee roaster and cannot wait to have an official place for our community to gather,” she says. “Happiness is the main influence of what drives us. We wanted to have a business doing something that made us happy and would be family-oriented, being that we have small children and they are part of the deal.”
For the future of business growth in Sopchoppy, Carolyn says, “It’s hard to say what the future holds in Sopchoppy for future businesses. I’d like to see more local places but always keep our small-town vibe. That’s what makes us unique from the rest of the ever-so-growing world. We already have a couple of charming businesses, Civic Brewery and Sand and Soul Boutique. If all we offer is a brewery, a cute boutique, and some coffee and sweets, I’d say it’s worth the drive! I mean, anything else is just a bonus!”
The Sand and Soul Designs boutique, owned by Andrea Cayson, is a historical building more than 123 years old. The shop is next to the Sopchoppy Grocery and the two stores are connected through a hallway. Cayson has owned the shop for five years.
“When I came in here, it didn’t look like this,” says Cayson. “We built a wall, and we painted over all the trim work. When I came in with my husband, it had four-foot cobwebs hanging everywhere. It was full of junk. It was awful.”
Having a vision for the store Cayson and her husband transformed it into a completely different space. “It’s got really good bones,” she says.
Its been reported that the Sand and Soul shop may have a “soul” – there’s talk of a ghost. When Cayson started coming into the shop, she began noticing things being moved around. “So I thought my husband was doing it. I asked him, are you moving my stuff around in my shop? He goes, I didn’t move anything around your shop.”
Cayson came in one day and found a heavy sign made out of plywood perfectly placed on the couch in the shop. “So if it had fallen, it would have been heavy and hit the floor, and it wouldn’t have been perfectly placed on the couch,” she says.
“I feel like it’s a ‘she’ because of how delicately she moves things around,” she says. “And the crazy thing is when I went to rent this building, back when I was going to open my shop, I had no idea that this was my great aunt and her husband’s shop. They had this built and had a post office and grocery store in this little bit.”
Not only has the ghost caught the attention of Cayson, but there have been many incidents with her sister, mother, and the employees of Sopchoppy Grocery.
“There was somebody that had this shop before me that the ladies at the store told me, that the girl ran through the thing out of their door screaming. She never would come back and work here, and she finally told them that she had seen the ghost,” Cayson says.
“She’s here, and there might be other ones. My mom would go through my shop to the grocery store when she came here. Several times she would go, ‘Do you hear little kids singing?’ and I said no, and she told me, ‘Every time I go in here, I hear kids singing.”
Cayson says she doesn’t feel scared of this ghost. “It’s part of the store.”
Outside of owning Sand and Souls, Cayson is a member of Discover Sopchoppy, which host monthly community markets and festivals. Cayson is excited about the upcoming Depot Festival on Sept. 17.
“We’re excited about that, and then we’ll have the oyster mullet festival in November and the Santa one in Christmas. And then SPIA (Sopchoppy Preservation and Improvement Association) turned over Worm Gruntin’ (Festival) to us. They didn’t want to do it anymore, but they wanted the tradition to be carried on to keep it like it was as much as possible, so they asked us to take it over, so we’re excited about that. Just keeping it going here in this little town.”