Sessions turns Great South Bay Brewery into weekly dance venue

Sessions turned Great South Bay Brewery’s Bay Shore property into a weekly Wednesday-night dance destination, opening the residency at 25 Drexel Dr. with doors at 6 p.m., opening DJs, Theo as the resident name on the main stage at 7 p.m., and music running until midnight.

The setup goes beyond a standard bar booking. Great South Bay Brewery’s 3.1-acre site gives the brand room for multiple gathering areas, food and retail vendors, lawn games, multiple bars and access to the Ghost Tasting Room, building a fuller night around the music instead of a single dance floor. Future Wednesdays are expected to add guest DJs, surprise performances and other entertainment, giving Sessions a recurring home rather than another one-off party.

That matters in Bay Shore, where Great South Bay Brewery has already operated since 2011 and long functioned as a flexible local venue. The brewery describes itself as a Suffolk County microbrewery with a nautical theme and award-winning craft beers, and its calendar already includes recurring programming such as bingo, trivia, Latin night and live music. It also offers private event spaces and multiple party rooms, a sign that the property has been built to absorb more than just beer service.

Sessions, meanwhile, has been moving around the region as a dance-music brand with events across Long Island, the Hamptons and New York City. The Bay Shore residency gives that circuit a fixed Thursday-like but not quite bar-night rhythm, one aimed at after-work crowds, regulars and dancers who want a dependable midweek plan without the formality of a club cover or a big-ticket concert.

The opening-night hook was built for that kind of audience. The first 50 guests through the gate received a complimentary Hooky VIP package that included admission, a wristband and access to discounted vodka sodas from 6 to 8 p.m. That kind of promotional push, paired with a weekly start time and a midnight close, points to a format designed to bring repeat traffic back to downtown Bay Shore all summer.

Great South Bay Brewery’s local history gives the move added weight. The brewery was founded in 2009 by fourth-generation brewer Rick Sobotka, and its long-running Bay Shore home has become a mix of production space, nightlife venue and neighborhood hangout. Sessions is now folding into that mix, giving Suffolk County another recurring Wednesday option built around music, not just drinks.