WILMINGTON — A restaurant that closed earlier in the year will find new life by mid- to end-summer as a group of restaurateurs plan to expand upon their midtown brand.
READ MORE: Sweet n Savory closed due to court-ordered Chapter 7 bankruptcy
Pine Valley Market has taken the keys to Sweet n Savory, located at 1611 Pavilion Place near Wrightsville Beach. Having been open for more than two decades, Sweet n Savory shuttered in February due to a court-ordered Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
PVM co-owner Christi Ferretti said someone mentioned to her in passing the idea of expanding the market to a second location. Earlier in the year, they informed her of the Sweet n Savory building becoming available.
“At first I didn’t think much of it,” she said, having just stepped back from Smoke on the Water after helping its former owner, Allan Middleton, reshape the riverfront restaurant for a year. At the end of January, Middleton sold it to Dustin and Diane Smith, the family of Middleton’s partner, James Smith, who passed away unexpectedly in 2023.
“I learned so much from that experience,” Ferretti said, “but it also gave me a real appreciation for what I have here.”
Ferretti said the more she started thinking about the current output at the 3,000-square-foot Pine Valley Market, located at 3520 S. College Road, and what was needed to grow, the more the Sweet n Savory location didn’t seem like a far-off idea. Ferretti has owned “The Market” — as many of her customers refer to it — with her wife, Kathy Webb, since 2003; it originally opened in 1997.
Three years ago, business partners Matt and Christyanna Durand invested in PVM; Christyanna already worked for Ferretti, who said she was integral to helping it pivot and stay afloat during Covid-19. The Durands — who met in the restaurant industry in college — have years of experience in the industry, having worked at a plac in The Wharf in San Francisco before moving to North Carolina. Matt said he’s always had entrepreneurship in his blood, having owned numerous businesses (he still operates a roofing company in town as well).
“It was just a great opportunity,” he said of signing on as co-owners of PVM. “The restaurant has a solid reputation and we really respect Christi. … We actually looked at expanding Pine Valley into another location a few years ago”
Matt pointed to a space on Oleander Drive but said it didn’t work out. When Ferretti told him about the Sweet n Savory location, he jumped on it. The restaurateurs signed the lease on Friday, April 11.
The 7,000-square-foot restaurant on Pavilion Place will serve breakfast, brunch and lunch. Breakfast isn’t new to Ferretti; the midtown market served it once before but stopped as catering and other needs continued to grow and space became scant. Ferretti said she is still working out the menu but expects a return of popular items like bacon pancakes, cheesesteak omelet and yogurt parfaits among them. Plus, they’ll be turning out homemade biscuits.
“It will allow us to increase business by roughly 25%,” Ferretti said. “And those are conservative numbers.”
The lunch menu will remain the same but likely will include relaunching some favorite sandwiches, such as fried bologna or the Italian.
“With David’s Deli closing, we thought it was a great opportunity to fill that gap,” Ferretti said. (The deli closed last week after three decades in business and is located just around the corner from Sweet n Savory.)
Ferretti said the bar will remain in place, serving brunch cocktails, as well as coffee drinks, wine, beer and mimosas. And the outdoor deck will continue to seat diners. While Sweet n Savory sat more than 100 people at a time, Ferretti expects the new concept to serve 60 to 80 people, in order to make room for retail.
The larger kitchen at Sweet n Savory will alleviate demand among PVM staff and require more hands on deck. The group plan to hire around 15 or so more people once all is said and done, bringing payroll to 30.
“It’s really important to me that we build a strong team,” Ferretti said, also praising her current employees, who she calls family.
Each day, according to Ferretti, the whole crew engages in a “very delicate dance” operating on a kitchen line made up of one 12-inch fryer, a 24-inch flat top, a four-burner range and a grill.
“We’ve gotten really good at it,” she said. “Sometimes our lunch is rocking and we are trying to make a new soup for the next day and prep 400 short ribs for an event, while doing a corporate lunch and platters for delivery. And it’s all happening on that one little line of cook space.”
This doesn’t account for special holidays, such as Thanksgiving bringing in 300 or so more orders for sides, turkeys and hams.
“We’re busting out at the seams from the kitchen standpoint right now,” Matt said.
In addition to serving breakfast, brunch and lunch, they also will have an expanded retail section of local and regionally sold culinary goods. With a 2,500-square-foot kitchen, this will allow the business to grow its take-and-bake meals and cold and hot deli items sold by the pound.
“It will allow us to double the size of our retail market,” Matt said. “And we’re gonna look to do a lot more offerings, in addition just to prepared foods — different types of sauces and different dry retail goods as well. We’ve even talked about utilizing some of the space to do private events.”
Ferretti said this would take place during after hours, most likely “for engagement parties or anniversaries.” Hours haven’t been finalized for the second restaurant, but the kitchen will close at 3 p.m., like the midtown location. Retail and deli items will continue to be sold until 6 p.m.
“We know that when people are running over to the beach to see a friend for dinner, they might want to stop and get a little hostess gift,” Ferretti said.
The official name of the Wrightsville Beach location is still to be determined. The group has tossed around The Market, Pine Valley Market at the Beach, or an entirely new moniker.
“We can’t seem to get on the same page yet on what to call it,” Ferretti said. “But at the end of the day, we are going to start simple and make sure we can tread water and then build it out from there. The positive is, we have a really supportive community and great clientele.”
The co-owners also signed a separate deal with Sweet n Savory’s bankruptcy attorney to purchase all kitchen equipment, furniture and the like. Ferretti said they have plans to host a sale to get rid of some of the unneeded items as they get further along in the renovation process.
The goal is to open the restaurant by the end of July.
Tips or comments? Email info@portcitydaily.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
