Bok Choy Boy’s residency at Charles Towne Fermentory is a win-win-win, for chef, brewery, and customers
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
Charleston’s many food trucks and pop-ups are an exciting way to offer diners a different kind of cuisine every day of the week outside of the normal offerings a neighborhood might have. But the grind for the chefs and owners can be exhausting, especially this time of year with temperatures blistering. Inside these mobile kitchens or under a tent in a parking lot can be even more daunting.
It’s a hustle that Charleston native Setrini Sison knows all too well. The chef operated his restaurant Bok Choy Boy as a pop-up for years before working out of Port of Call on Market Street downtown. A few months ago, Bok Choy Boy set up a permanent residence inside Charles Towne Fermentory in the Avondale Business District along Savannah Highway in West Ashley.
“We’ve sweat a lot during our pop-up days in the middle of summer in Charleston,” says Sison. “Fortunately for us Charles Towne Fermentory was looking for a permanent resident and we are happy to hop on board. We love our partnership with the Fermentory. With their amazing beers and incredible staff, we are truly thankful for the opportunity to be working with them.”
Sison has a Culinary Arts Degree from the College of Dupage in Illinois, which is consistently ranked among the top programs in the country. He and his wife lived in Chicago for about seven years, and it was while in the Windy City where he began his career.
Sison’s first job in the industry was working at a deli counter in the grocery store while he was going to school. After graduation, he worked as a sous chef for Mario Batali’s Eataly – Chicago. Then, he moved back to Charleston where he worked as a sous chef for James Beard-nominated chef Craig Diehl at Cypress.
In 2019 Sison started Bok Choy Boy and began popping up around town at local breweries. The Fermentary was one of his regular stops and he and head brewer/owner Adam Goodwin developed a friendship and appreciation for what the other was doing. The food and beer seemed to complement each other. That evolved into Goodwin inviting Sison to take over the kitchen at the brewery full-time.
According to Sison, the Bok Choy Boy menu highlights his heritage with dishes that areinfluenced by his nationality and the flavors of Southeast Asia.
“Growing up in the Philippines, I include some of my favorite food on the menu, like lumpia (fried eggrolls with meat filling) and tocino,” he says. “The flavors of Japan and Korea are also incorporated on the menu – with noodles and rice dishes that have plenty of umami and a balance of flavors sweet, sour, salty and sweet.”
Some of the more popular items on the menu are the Dan Dan Noodles (spicy peanut sauce with zucchini, cucumbers and black vinegar), Korean Fried Chicken Wings (sweet and spicy from the gochujang sauce with sides of kimchi and housemade pickles), Tocino Rice Bowl (a classic Filipino dish of thinly-sliced pork marinated with garlic and brown sugar served with garlic fried rice).
Having the Fermentory as its home base allows Bok Choy Boy to do a lot more than they were able to do in a pop-up scenario. Sison says he can expand its menu and now has delivery options (DoorDash) to customers.
“We’ve done dinners with beer pairings. Look for more events like that in the future,” says Sison. “We also want to do a collaboration beer with the Fermentory at some point.”
Bok Choy Boy is open daily inside Charles Towne Fermenrory, located at 809 Savannah Hwy. For more informaiton find them on Facebook or call (843) 818-8282.
