The story of Homer and Raven Ford echoes a familiar chord for a pair of young Buffalo repats — they met while working together at the former Bistro Europa, had their first date on Dyngus Day in 2008 and left several months later for work in Rhode Island and later New York City. In 2015, they returned to the Queen City. Eager to give back to the community where they got their start and leave their mark, he landed a job as executive chef of Delaware North’s Patina 250 restaurant and she as assistant general manager of Big Ditch Brewing.
Indeed, their story might seem familiar — with one exception. Neither is from Buffalo originally. Connecticut-born Homer came here “on a whim” after a stint living in the Adirondacks, and Raven is from Texas.
“It’s definitely the people,” said Raven of what she loves most about Buffalo. “We have everything here — great shows, nightlife, food, proximity to Toronto — and the weather is beautiful. It’s a city with a small-town feel, and I love that.”
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Homer agreed. “When we left, there was that feeling that we were leaving somewhere we shouldn’t have. We missed it, so when made the decision to leave New York City, we just kept coming back to Buffalo. It was the right place.”
Both of them honed their skills working in restaurants around New York. Raven advanced from a server to the general manager of a busy, $5 million-a-year restaurant on the Upper West Side. Homer took a position as a line cook and worked his way up to executive chef through well-known establishments in the Dinex Group and BR Guest Hospitality.
“I went back down to the bottom and not in a bad way, but on purpose,” he said. “Dinex was my culinary school. I went there because I wanted to learn all the classic, basic building blocks, and I did my best. I’d wake up in cold sweats in the middle of the night forgetting if I’d brunoised shallots the right way.”
The pair was married in 2015 — taking a detour back to Buffalo before the ceremony for one last meal at Bistro Europa — and through everything have made one another their top priority.
“When he was an executive chef and I was a GM, we were easily working 70 hours a week or more, but we were always off Mondays and we always knew we had at least that one day together,” Raven said.
Now that they’re back in Buffalo, the Fords are in the epicenter of our thriving bar and restaurant scene. Raven coordinates events and manages operations for Big Ditch, the popular brewery at the corner of Huron and Ellicott streets.
“It was really important to me to be part of something happening here — the changes and the renaissance going on,” she said.
Meanwhile, Homer has led the opening of Patina 250, the sleek, comfortable fine-dining restaurant on the ground floor of Delaware North’s magnificent new downtown headquarters. To prepare for this month’s unveiling, he learned all he could by assisting with Patina openings in other cities, and spent months building his team and zeroing in on an eclectic, seasonal menu of scratch-made dishes.
“I’m not pretentious, I’m not over the top — it’s solid food, classically done,” he explained. “It’s got to be approachable. You can come on a Monday and there’ll be the same people who come on a Saturday night.”
Homer continued, “If you can have fun in a restaurant — if you enjoy the food, the drinks and the people you’re with — then we’re doing a good job.”
Outside the kitchen, the busy couple recently purchased a house in West Seneca and hopes to expand their family soon. In the meantime, their bustling careers and beloved dog — a wiry terrier named Henry Ford — will keep them plenty busy.