Bridgeport Pasty opening brick-and-mortar bakery

Bridgeport Pasty's truck (right) and future bakery (left)

From Chinese restaurants (Home Style Taste) to coffee shops (Jackalope) to sit-down spots (Oliver's Cafe), Bridgeport has been gaining traction recently as a dining destination. (That's not to mention less-brand-new favorites Bridgeport Coffee, Maria's and Pleasant House Bakery.) Husband-and-wife Jay Sebastian and Carrie Clark, residents of the neighborhood, are eager to be a part of the revival. "We're hoping to improve the profile of the Bridgeport community," says Sebastian, who, along with Clark, is opening Bridgeport Pasty, a bakery, this spring. "A lot of new small businesses are coming to the area," he says, "and it’s starting to become a bit of a destination." 

Sebastian thanks his food truck of the same name, which launched two years ago, for making the brick-and-mortar location possible. "Despite all the city problems with licensing and restrictions [with regard to food trucks]," says Sebastian, "we've still been able to reach a nice cross-section of residents for a fraction of the cost of opening a restaurant." In so doing, "it allowed us to test the waters and see if our product will appeal to the public," he says, adding: "It has." As a result, this spring the couple is adding a non-mobile location on Morgan Street to sell their pasties: hand-held meat pies with fillings like pork-and-apple, steak-and-Stilton, ginger chicken and spinach-and-mushroom. In addition to pasties (sold hot and frozen), it will serve soups ("logical soups to go with the hand-held working-class food nature of the pasty," says Sebastian, such as Tuscan bean soup or corn chowder), salads, baked sweets, coffee and sodas (like Bridgeport-made Filbert's). The food truck will continue to be a "mobile 'incubator' for new ideas," says Sebastian.

As showcased in that tiny, electric-powered Bridgeport Pasty food truck, Sebastian and Clark are serious when it comes to sustainability. They're having solar panels installed on the roof of the bakery, "so the cool thing," says Sebastian, "is we'll be able to charge our electric truck with solar power and run most of the bakery out of it." 

Bridgeport Pasty (3142 S Morgan St) is slated to open this spring. Follow its progress @BridgeportPasty.