Stephanie Soffer wears two hats in Sarasota, and both of them involve people trusting her with something personal. By day she's a Realtor. On nights and weekends, she's managing partner of Sopranos Social Club, the wine bar and locker club she built with her father off Gulf Gate Drive.
Sopranos Social Club isn't a walk-in bar. It's a members-oriented space built around wine tastings, private event rentals, and lockers where regulars store their own bottles between visits. Stephanie walks through why her father wanted a space that felt more like a clubhouse than a retail wine shop, and how the two of them split the work of running it while she keeps her real estate career going in parallel.
The conversation moves easily between the two businesses. Stephanie talks about what makes a Sarasota real estate client different from a wine club member, and how relationship-driven work in one field taught her lessons she uses in the other. She also gets into the practical side of Sopranos Social Club: what a tasting night looks like, why the lockers matter to serious collectors, and how word of mouth built the club's following without much traditional marketing.
A Father-Daughter Build
The father-daughter dynamic runs through the whole episode. Stephanie describes Sopranos Social Club less as a startup and more as a shared project, one where her dad's instincts about wine and hospitality met her own read on what Sarasota's growing crowd of transplants and locals actually wanted from a night out.
Sopranos Social Club sits at 2120 Gulf Gate Drive, and Stephanie is specific about what the space is and isn't: it's open for wine tastings and available to rent out for private events, not a drop-in retail wine shop. That distinction matters to how she and her father run it, keeping the experience curated rather than casual foot traffic. The hosts ask what a typical tasting night looks like and how members decide to rent a locker versus simply attend an event, and Stephanie lays out the mechanics of a business built around repeat, relationship-driven visits rather than one-off sales.
By the end, the hosts get her take on Sarasota's rapid growth and its new roundabouts, tying the neighborhood conversation back to a business built specifically for people who want somewhere that feels like theirs.
What you'll take away
- Sopranos Social Club is a members-style wine bar with tasting nights, private event rentals and personal wine lockers, not a walk-in retail shop
- Stephanie Soffer runs the club alongside her father and balances it with a full-time real estate career
- The business grew primarily through word of mouth rather than traditional advertising
- Sopranos Social Club is located on Gulf Gate Drive in Sarasota and books private events
Places mentioned: Gulf Gate Drive