It’s not very often that we find a candidate who not only worked for us years before, but is just the right fit for the change that we need as we continue to grow!

Brigitta is bright, positive, and always jumps in to help where she can. She has been an indelible addition to the Cape marketing team, supporting our distribution side for both Cape May Brewing Company and Cape Beverage!

“I'm so happy to have Brigitta Faragasso on our team as Marketing Coordinator,” says Director of Marketing Alicia Grasso. “Her expertise in B2B marketing along with graphic design makes her a great fit to support the growth of Cape Beverage. She’s a total pro who came in and hit the ground running, and she fits in so well with everyone that it almost feels like she’s been here for years!”

Meet Brigitta Faragasso!

“I was born in Pennsylvania and moved here when I was nine,” she says. “I’ve been here ever since.”

She’s from Upper Township, just outside of Ocean City, and now Brigitta lives with her husband Matt, baby Everett, and pup Millie in Cape May Court House.

Her original roots are in Morton, PA up in Delaware County outside of Philly.

She attended Upper Township schools through middle school, and spent her high school years at Holy Spirit.

“It was an experience that taught me a lot,” she says. Especially since she attended a new school separate from the peers that she’d grown up with.

“I was definitely the emo kid in high school,” she says with a laugh. “Gaged ears, black nails, listening to My Chemical Romance and AFI.”

“What got me to where I am today was my art teacher,” she shares. “She really pushed her students to live their passion and find something to do within art that could make you happy.”

“That’s what got me into Moore College of Art & Design to attend their Saturday morning Young Artists Workshops when I was in high school,” she says.

“I also have to give a lot of credit to my Mom, because there were many hours spent in the car going back and forth from the shore. She was my biggest supporter,” Brigitta says.

Her art teacher received grant money to send selected students to Moore, so students didn’t have to pay for the art classes, and the experience influenced her track after high school.

Brigitta attended Marymount University in Arlington, VA, earning her degree in Graphic Design, and minored in Studio Arts.

“I loved painting anything and everything. It gave me an excuse to have three hours two times a week to just paint,” she says.

“I haven’t painted in years; I’m so sad about it. My husband keeps telling me I need to paint, and I’m like, I know! But how do you get all of that in with a kid and a dog and a house and cleaning and a job?” She laughs, shaking her head.

“I did a bit of painting when Everett was born and painted some things for his room,” she says.

Acrylics are some of her favorite mediums to work with.

“I did a watercolor painting of where Matt and I had our wedding reception to hang on the wall, and scanned it in and overlaid text on it to make the Save the Dates for our wedding, so it was dual purpose,” she says with a smile.

Her artistic eye usually led her to experimenting with changing up living spaces as well.

“I used to always change my room around as a kid, because I’d think, this has been like this for three months, it’s time to move,” she says with a laugh. “Little tiny me would just shove this full-size bed to the other side of the room, and from downstairs my mom would be like, what are you doing?!”

“In InDesign, I made a to-scale layout of Everett’s room before he was born to look at everything visually,” she says with a laugh. “That’s what happens when you’re pregnant and waiting.”

After college, it was too expensive for her to stay in Arlington without a job lined up, so she came back home to Cape May County and snagged a summer job.

“I was a server at Joe’s Fish Company on the Wildwood boardwalk,” she says.

“Then I found a job at a local newspaper, Catamaran Media, who published the Gazettes, where I did ad design for two years,” she says.

“Then I joined the Cape May County Chamber, which was something that I didn’t go looking for,” she says.

“At the time, I spoke with Vicki, my old boss there, about what I can do and what I wanted to do, and asked her if she knew anyone in Cape May County that it would make sense to reach out to,” she says.

“Her Events Coordinator had just put in her notice, so she asked if I wanted to interview for that position since I was there,” she says with a laugh. “It ended up being a great fit, and I was there for seven and a half years.”

“When I was coming back from maternity leave, everything was already shut down due to COVID, so my ‘go back to work’ moment was to sit down at my kitchen table with a laptop in front of me,” she says.

(Ed. note: Is that crazy timing or what??)

“Which was great, because that afforded me the whole next year to stay at home with my baby. It was very stressful, but I got time with him and didn't miss any of his firsts,” she says.

“As many tears that were shed and the stress, I got so much out of it, too,” she says.

“Everett was getting so big and active and interested in everything, I was like, this doesn’t work. I would be sitting down at the computer trying to accomplish things, and he’d be tearing something down across the room. I’d fix that and go back to type a few more words before grabbing him from the couch that he was about to launch himself off of,” she says with a laugh.

“For every solution I made, he found new ways to explore. It got to the point that it didn't work well,” she says.

“It was during one of the Chamber’s webinars that Bob Krill was saying how they had all these positions to hire for,” she shares. “I went to the brewery’s website and saw this job opportunity.”

Now, Everett is stoked to go to daycare each day to visit with his new group of friends, and Brigitta is loving having some time to herself during her morning commute and being back in the office.

Things seem to work out at just the right moment that they need to, and Brigitta credits that to the time that she met her husband Matt as well.

“One night, I really wanted to go out,” she says. “I was never the one to suggest going out to the bars, but I texted my one friend, and had to convince them to go with me to Atlantic City.”

“That was also the night that Matt happened to be out, unexpectedly,” she says.

“I’d been single for about two years and had dated some guys casually, but was tired of dating. I was just going to focus on my job and build my career,” she says.

Brigitta sighs and smiles. “That lasted all of two hours.”

“It turns out that we had friends in common, so he stopped by to say hi. We started talking and I found out he worked for the Herald. I was working for Catamaran Media, so they’re competition. I said, oh I can’t be talking to you, you’re the competition! He just died over that comment and the sarcasm and we ended up talking the rest of the night,” she shares.

“Now, it’s been almost ten years that we’ve known each other, and married for five,” she says. “All because I just had to go out one night, which was never me. Something was in the stars.”

“My stepson Logan is ten, and he’s the best big brother. When Everett was born, he used to walk in the door and say, ‘where’s my baby?’” She says. “He would just sit on the couch just snuggling him the whole weekend.”

“He would hold onto him until it was time to eat or change his diaper, and then he’d be like, ‘here you go!’” she says with a laugh.

COVID brought big changes for her husband Matt as well, who started his own auto detailing business, Shore Style Auto Spa, in 2017. At first, he worked out of the detached garage, but realized that he needed more and more space.

“He found a shop and opened that up during COVID,” she says. “He’s been doing really well. I am super proud of everything he has and is accomplishing for himself. He is really passionate about it.”

“It’s funny how everything always works out in the end and that’s held true for so many things for us,” she says.

For her work with Cape May Brewing Company, Brigitta was brought on to help build out the marketing side of Cape Beverage and help with the distribution side of CMBC for Pennsylvania and Delaware.

“It’s going really well. I came in to see how we can Make It Better, as our values say,” she says.

“It really is a great place to work,” she says. “There’s opportunity, it’s growing...there are a lot of great things going on here.”

“I streamlined the sell sheets. Each supplier had their own sell sheet, so I saw that as an opportunity to put it together as one piece, and through the whole quoting process for that, discovered that it was actually going to save us a lot of money,” she says.

“We’re doing a point of sale project right now, too,” she says. “I’m so excited to see that come to full fruition.”

Outside of work, Brigitta loves music and, as she calls them, trashy reality shows.

“I really do,” she says with a smile. “I love Vanderpump Rules, and any Bravo show, really, like The Real Housewives.”

“When we went out to California, I said to my husband, there’s Vanderpump restaurants all around here, so we’re going, that’s on my list,” she says.

“We hit all but one. And he was really funny, because he had a great time. The food was good, they had awesome drinks, and you actually saw some of the people from the show, so it was kind of cool,” she shares.

Her favorite was SUR, the iconic restaurant of the Vanderpump Rules series.

“The goat cheese balls are everything. They talk about them so much on the show, and they totally live up to the expectation,” she says. “We even ordered another plate; they were so good.”

“I haven’t been to a concert in forever, but I’m dying to go back,” she says.

“Even if there are shows right now, I’m not going because my kind of shows are the ones where you’re crammed up to the stage and everyone is on top of each other and you can feel the amplifier rattling your body, and that’s just not a good idea right now, so that will have to wait,” she says with a laugh.

“My favorite concert was probably Attack Attack! in DC,” she says. “They’ve since disbanded and the lead singer formed Beartooth, which I actually like a bit better.”

Brigitta’s music tastes run the gamut, from rock and metal to singer-songwriter fare like Maggie Rogers and classics like Simon & Garfunkel.

As far as Cape May brews, Brigitta was a huge fan of The Bog and Apple Bomb as Cape May was just getting its start.

“We have a lot of great new stuff now, too,” she says. “Bay Daze is my favorite right now. I love the Strawberry Radler that just came out, because I can just keep drinking and enjoying it.”

“I hadn’t had a Cape May IPA in years, and I was out at a restaurant that had it on draft, so I tried it again. I thought, why have I stopped drinking this? It’s really good! This is a really solid IPA and it was an easy beer to have and enjoy anytime,” she says. “A lot of my weeklies recently have been IPA. It was a great reunion.”

Brigitta certainly has some history with CMBC, too.

“A lot of Matt and I’s first dates were at the Tasting Room, and we did the first mug club,” she says.

Brigitta even actually used to work with us briefly back in 2013 or 2014!

“Cape May Brewing Company was still small, but they were growing, and they just needed someone to sell merchandise. They didn’t have the Brewtique at the time; it was just the Tasting Room,” she explains.

“I was working for the Chamber at the time. I did that a couple times, and then they had a couple events where they needed people to pour, so I did that as well,” she says.

“That was around the time I was buying my house. It became apparent that they needed more, and I wasn’t the person for it at the time,” she says. “That’s why it was really awesome to see this opportunity and be like, oh, that dream isn’t dead!”

We’re so glad that she came back to join us at just the right time!

The next time you see Brigitta at Cape Beverage, or in the Tasting Room or Brewtanical Garden, make sure to say hi!