[Ed. note: After press, PVM announced its opening would be pushed back from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7.]
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — Come November, a beloved Wilmington market will flip on its open sign at a second location, to serve diners breakfast and lunch in the Wrightsville Beach area.
READ MORE: Popular catering group, restaurateurs take over former Sweet n Savory location
As Pine Valley Market Wrightsville Beach moves into the final stages of permitting, the restaurateurs plan to open Nov. 5, with a tentative ribbon cutting planned for Nov. 11. From owners Christi Ferretti and Kathy Webb and Matthew and Christyanna Durand, the group has been renovating the former Sweet n Savory Cafe location since spring.
“This is an iconic building for anybody that’s ever vacationed here, anybody who’s ever lived here,” Ferretti said. “Sweet n Savory was sort of an institution. And we didn’t want to see it bulldozed or become another office building.”
Sweet n Savory closed at the beginning of the year due to a court-ordered Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Since April, the PVM crew has been gutting the restaurant.
“We redid the floors and we redid the ceilings and we redid the roof,” Christyanna said.
A white-and-black color palette, aside from a blue-designed bar front and natural wooden tables, will be punctuated by Leslie Koehn’s coastal photography, to tap into the beach feel of the area.
The restaurant has around 7,000 square feet of space, more-than doubling the size of the PVM flagship market at 3520 S. College Road. It has been operating since the late 1990s, but Ferretti and Webb purchased the market in the early aughts; the College Road location will remain open to serve midtown customers.
“But so much of our catering clientele live on this side of town,” Ferretti said, expecting somewhat of a built-in customer base for the new space. “We have regulars at College Road that come in three times a week — it’s like their neighborhood place. We hope to create that here.”
Also part of the plan is to attract the thousands of visitors who trek to Wrightsville Beach annually for vacation. In addition to being a restaurant, the front section of the space will include a retail market, open until 6 p.m., for those who need to pop in for grab-and-go items, whether that be frozen take-away meals or sides like mac and cheese or collards, sausage gravy, appetizers and more. There also will be quarts of chicken, egg, tuna or potato salad for sale, along with hummus, and other easy snacks for beach-side eatin’.
However, people who choose to dine in will be able to order breakfast and lunch from the menu. Breakfast lasts from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends, to include items like bacon pancakes, omelettes, grit bowls, corned beef hash, and yogurt parfaits, as well as homemade biscuits.
“Plus, we will have all of the popular sandwiches and homemade soups the market has become known for,” Christyanna said, noting the restaurant could seat up to 100, when including the back patio. “We don’t know what we are going to do with the patio yet, but there are receptacles for a TV — really, we want to see what the diners want.”
Lunch is served until 3 p.m. on weekdays (the restaurant closes Tuesday only). There also will be a “sweet” and “savory” section noted on the menu in homage to the building’s former tenant, as well as the SnS sign hanging in the hallway amid “wall of fame” Pine Valley Market regalia.
In addition to tables in the restaurant proper, there is a closed-in back room, with a nook for people to cozy up to while waiting to be seated and more tables. This area can also be rented out for private meetings, Christyanna said.
The bar will have a full cocktail menu, including coffee drinks with a newly installed cappuccino machine run by specialty baristas. Plus, there will be mimosas, local craft beer and wine from the bartenders.
And though PVM Wrightsville Beach will not open for dinner, the group envisions the space being adaptable for specialized events and one-of-a-kind tastings.
“I would love to do Sunday suppers with guest chefs once a month,” Ferretti explained. “And we can also book parties in the space. It will be nice to not have to lug around catering equipment and instead prepare it all there in the new kitchen.”
Christyanna said the vision for the restaurant is ever-evolving, with big plans constantly being tossed around. First, the group wants to settle in to see what works best.
“As we adapt to the new space, we just hope our customers — old and new — give us patience and grace,” Christyanna said. “We have all these ideas we want to do, but we have to crawl before we walk.”
The Durands joined the PVM fold three years ago as partners to help steer operations as the 3,000-square-foot South College Road market and restaurant — which also operates a large catering business — was growing but limited on space and hands. The group expects the Wrightsville Beach addition will allow increased operations by at least 25%, though anticipate more.
“The size of the kitchen was the main reason I gave this a second look,” Ferretti said of the location. “Because we have spent 23 years feeding 900 people out of a 18-foot cook line.”
The current PVM crew have been holding down the flagship, churning out 160 tickets made-to-order daily for lunch, while also handling prepared foods and caterings.
The kitchen at Pavilion Place will be two-thronged. The front line will churn out made-to-order hot items for diners. Ferretti expects her current kitchen crew will help train the new hires, who also will serve the same lunch menu as the South College Road location at first.
“But I eventually want the chefs to have fun and challenge themselves to create new items at Wrightsville Beach,” Ferretti said. “So they’ll have the ability to hear from diners and get creative.”
A secondary kitchen behind the main line will be used as a pre-made meal production area. A prep cook and others will be positioned on the back line, outfitted with a blast chiller and conveyor belt packaging system.
“All of that allows us to not do things in batches of 20 anymore, but 200 and then move them to the other store,” Ferretti explained.
A line of multiple new coolers are in the front retail space at Wrightsville Beach, which Christyanna said can be restocked from the back: “like the milk cooler in the supermarket.” While there is more room at Wrightsville Beach, Ferretti maintained all Thanksgiving orders — which open to the public this Saturday, Nov. 1 — still will be picked up only at South College Road.
The PVM owners have hired front- and back-of-the-house staff, including BOH manager Tom Snell, previously from the Boathouse, and FOH manager Jess Wyman, who worked at Stoked in Carolina Beach. Ferretti met Wyman last year at a U.S. Foods show and worked with her on a consulting job overseeing a bar program.
“I trust her,” Ferretti said. “She knows how to run a bar and front-of-the-house staff and has my back.”
Wyman, who has a passion for the restaurant industry, decided to make it a career after leaving a desk job in corporate America. The fast-paced movement, camaraderie and organized chaos keeps everyday fresh, she described. But working for a female business owner in a male-dominated industry is what truly inspired Wyman to apply to PVM Wrightsville Beach.
“When you’re constantly trying to prove yourself in this environment — to work for somebody that understands where I’m at, what I’m trying to accomplish, I’m excited,” Wyman said, calling Ferretti “impressive” and “strong.” “It’s an honor that she wants me to help her achieve her goals and dreams for this location.”
Ferretti said it’s been a learning curve building a career for more than two decades in the food service industry. She credits hard-working employees as key to success — leaning on them to bring their own guidance and expertise to reach better, efficient operations.
“I don’t know what I don’t know,” Ferretti said. “I do know that the only reason I’m still relevant 23 years later is because I’ve changed to adapt. And I’ve hired great people who help. We work hard, but we also play hard and have fun. I’m grateful to all of them for what they do everyday. We’re a family and that’s what we are trying to create here in Wrightsville Beach: family.”
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