Ferndale will celebrate Independence Day with the town’s annual Main Street parade on July 4, and local business owners Skip and Laurie Wortman have been named the 2024 grand marshals.

The Wortmans own Ferndale Pizza Co., a beloved local restaurant that is celebrating its 30th year of business this summer.

As told in the Ferndale Enterprise Souvenir Edition:

From 1972 to 1990, today’s Pizza Company site [at 607 Main Street] was a service station and body shop. In 1991, it became “Me and Dino’s Pizzeria” — until Skip and Laurie Wortman arrived from San Diego.
They discovered “Me and Dino’s” was for sale on one of their many visits here, and decided that owning it would be a dream come true. In a matter of months, they were on their way to Ferndale to rename their restaurant “Ferndale Pizza Co.” That was in June 1994. This June marks the popular “Pizza Co’s” 30th anniversary!
In addition to their ever-popular pizzas, which are hand-tossed and baked in a brick oven, their menu includes a variety of Italian dinners. Sandwiches are served on delicious homemade rolls.
Each day, Skip bakes the bread, makes his pizza dough and the sauces and rolls his own meatballs. Son Ryan and daughter Kelsey are part of the family business that is celebrating its third decade.
Skip and Laurie and their very friendly staff look forward to serving you. They hope you will stop in for some great Italian food served in their cozy and casual restaurant.

And as the Wortmans recently shared on the Ferndale Pizza Co. Facebook page (along with some great photos of their business through the years):

Wow!! Thirty years in our beautiful little Ferndale! We’ve been blessed with so many amazing employees over the years. We have kind and encouraging customers. Shout out to the Sanfilippo family and our family and friends for their love and support.

They also paid tribute to their now-grown children:

Wouldn’t have been Pizza Co. without these two!
Thank you, Kelsey and Ryan for your patience when you were younger, for playing so nicely in the back garage when you were little, and for turning into wonderful, hard workers that we trust and love. We couldn’t have done Pizza Co. without you.

The Ferndale Chamber of Commerce and, indeed, the entire community look forward to celebrating the Wortmans and enjoying all of Ferndale’s traditional festivities on Thursday, July 4.

The parade will kick off at 12:00pm, starting at Main Street and Ocean Avenue and continuing down Main Street until Arlington Avenue.

In addition to Ferndale’s usual great selection of restaurants, shopping and lodgings, visitors may enjoy the Ferndale VFW Auxiliary’s barbecue fundraiser at Veterans’ Hall (1100 Main Street) starting at 11am on the holiday.

Happy 4th of July!