photo by: Derek Redd

From left, David Rose, Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce President Kurt Zende, Newbridge Church Lead Pastor Chris Figaretti, NB Cafe and Creamery Manager Emily Ryan and Chamber COO Mike Howard cut the ribbon at the Friday celebration of NB Cafe and Creamery.

WHEELING — In putting together a restaurant that will attract patrons to downtown Wheeling, NB Cafe and Creamery has pulled out all the stops – homemade food, including homemade ice cream crafted in the cafe’s basement.

“It’s the idea of using this Main Street area to build community and to bring fun and bring people back to downtown,” said Chris Figaretti, lead pastor of Newbridge Church, which owns and operates the NB Cafe and Creamery.

The restaurant welcomed guests from throughout the city Friday morning to cut the ribbon on the new venture. The cafe has been open for a while, serving coffee and snacks, but the menu has continued to expand, and now includes a wide selection of custom flavors. Those flavors contain the highest butterfat content you can find locally, Figaretti told the crowd.

As for why NB Cafe and Creamery has gone all out in quality and homemade goods, Figaretti had a very simple answer.

“When it comes to food, I’m a Figaretti,” he said, “and I take food very seriously.”

Figaretti is a member of the family that owns the popular Figaretti’s Restaurant in Wheeling, an Ohio Valley staple for decades. His grandfather Tony Figaretti was the restaurant’s chef from the 1950s until 1980.

The commitment to quality that has made Figaretti’s Restaurant so famous would have a home at NB Cafe and Creamery, Figaretti said.

“When it comes to food, or when it comes to most anything, I learned from my grandfather that, if you’re going to do it, it needs to have a ‘wow’ factor,” he said.

Newbridge Church has gone all in on helping revitalize the corner of Main and 10th streets in downtown Wheeling that already features Bridge Tavern and the Capitol Theatre. The restaurant is housed in the same building that holds Newbridge Academy for Kids, a child care center that has helped boost the opportunities for young families to find child care in Wheeling.

“It truly shows that they care about the community that they’re in,” said Brooke Anderson, marketing director of the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce. “They’re attacking so many problems in the community with this space and it’s beautiful to see.”

Figaretti said the purpose of the child care center and the restaurant come from the name of his church and its desire to build new bridges between it and the community around it.

“There just needed to be a place where people could gather, where they could work and collaborate, where parents dropping off their kids at child care can come in, pull out their laptops and work for a couple hours,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into that, but, bottom line, Newbridge Church exists for our community.”