Christi Ferretti is a woman who wears many hats. Wife. Mother. Business Owner. Chef. Teacher. Community Advocate. Volunteer. Ferretti co-owns Pine Valley Market with wife, Kathy Webb, and together the couple has a 12-year-old son, Alex. The market, which includes a cafe and catering company, celebrated 18 years in business at the start of the year.
When Ferretti and Webb moved to Wilmington to take over the business in 2003, the market served as a butcher shop and catering company with a sampling of prepared foods for carryout and plenty of specialty items from purveyors such as Robert Rothschild Farm and Stonewall Kitchen. It was one of the few local shops that carried these coveted items, and customers didn’t hesitate to spend a few extra dollars for gourmet dressings, jams, marinades and condiments.
But when the recession hit five years later, that was no longer the case. With the downturn in the economy, many of the market’s regulars were forced to trim their budgets. Yet despite that, Ferretti said many continued to support the market however they could.
“People may not have been spending what they used to, but they still made a point of coming in because they knew how important it was,” she said.
In an effort to draw more customers to the market, Ferretti and Webb decided to make the changes necessary for customers to be able to dine in.
“It was kind of a Hail Mary move,” Ferretti said. “There were a lot of peaks and valleys, and we never knew from one day to the next how to prepare.”
Once the market had a steady lunch business, they decided to open for breakfast as well, which was hugely popular but very taxing on the staff.
“For our staff to do what they do on a Friday and Saturday night and then have to come in and make biscuits at 5 a.m. was really difficult,” Ferretti said.
So in an effort to preserve the wellbeing of the staff, Ferretti and Webb decided to pull the plug on breakfast and close on Sundays. For Ferretti, this was particularly challenging because it was one of the first times she had to say no to a part of the business.
And saying no is not something that comes naturally to Ferretti.
In addition to overseeing day-to-day operations at the market and managing off-site catering, Ferretti has become well known around the Port City for her community involvement. Her outreach efforts have earned her numerous accolades, including a Women of Achievement Award from the YWCA Lower Cape Fear and a recent Toasty Award nomination.
It was by chance that she catered the initial local meeting of organizers looking to establish what would become North Carolina’s first all-girls public charter school, the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW).
“There were people there from the New York school,” Ferretti said, referring to the Young Women’s Leadership Network of which GLOW is an affiliate, “and the presentation they gave left me with tears in my eyes.”
She volunteers at the school, assisting with culinary classes, and for the past two years has served as the chef liaison for the academy’s annual celebrity chef fundraising events, assisting visiting chefs Robert Irvine and Tyler Florence in everything from menu planning and budgeting to assessing equipment needs and sourcing ingredients. It’s a major time commitment, but it’s a position Ferretti truly enjoys.
“GLOW has become a huge passion of mine,” Ferretti said. “I’m a teacher, that’s what I went to school for, so I love the chances I get to work with these girls. And it’s a huge reward for me to collaborate with local chefs that I don’t normally get to cook with, as well as chefs from outside of Wilmington. It’s an incredible learning opportunity that really reignites my passion for feeding people.”
It’s that, Ferretti said, that she finds most rewarding. Not the act of cooking itself, but feeding others.
That is a big part of what led her to volunteer her time and kitchen space to the efforts of World Central Kitchen (WCK) during Hurricane Florence.
Pine Valley Market served as a satellite kitchen for WCK in the days following Florence in September 2018, serving thousands of meals per day.
“What I learned from our efforts in response to Florence is that Wilmington is a strong, compassionate, tight-knit community that steps up in times of need,” Ferretti said. “Pine Valley Market is a piece of a larger picture of humanitarianism that is shown over and over again in Wilmington.”
Rather than having a marketing budget, Ferretti and Webb prefer to donate their time and food to charitable events. Their presence at these events, where the public gets to taste their food and see their commitment to the community, is their preferred method of advertising.
Pine Valley Market has participated in numerous events over the years from the Chef’s Feast benefiting the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, to The CARE Project, to the Epicurean Evening benefitting the Methodist Home for Children to the Wish Upon a Chef event, benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Eastern North Carolina, just to name a few.
“The exposure to guests at these events inevitably brings people into the market and generates catering business,” Ferretti said. “And it’s something we love to do.”
Ferretti said she’s still in awe over the fact that the community has been so supportive throughout their journey.
“We’re so grateful to Wilmington for welcoming us 18 years ago and for supporting us and growing with us over the years,” she said. “This is home.”
