Chef News

Hospitality industry unites in benefit for Fort Worth chef Keith 'Buttons' Hicks

Chef Keith "Buttons" Hicks

scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net

The original owners and management team of Buttons Restaurant, formerly located in Fort Worth, Addison, and DeSoto, have united to host “The Button’s Family Affair Benefit Concert” in support of Chef Keith “Buttons” Hicks.

The chef has been diagnosed with end-stage Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). He is in palliative care and needs a double lung transplant. The Buttons Family is asking for support and prayers from the community.

"We hosted countless benefit events and celebrations at Buttons Restaurant that was due to our pure love and compassion for the community," says Carolyn Hughes, former co-owner of Buttons Restaurant, in a release. "I am asking the community to support Chef Keith by attending this benefit concert in his honor. For so many years, he brought so much ‘Love, Peace and Gritz’ to each of our lives and now he needs us."

The “Button’s Family Affair Benefit Concert” will feature performances by bands that performed in the restaurants including Rob Holbert Band, Natural Change, Melanie Dutton, Paul Cannon, Kenya Crawford, Bergette Rideau, Lori Dawn, Tone Sommers, Monty McKlinton, Quinton Moore, Killa Bug, Linny Nance, Taylor Pace, Stephanie Sallie, Kurt and Ceici Jones, Bobby Counts, Honorary Howard Scott, Fredrick Nicholson Band, Jackie Don Loe, Second Nature, Sam Jones, Roxie and Ashleigh Smith, Lewis Stephens, Velvet and Jerry Clark, Ahmad Johnson and John Adams.

A true Buttons family reunion, many of the restaurant’s former owners, managers, chefs, bartenders, servers and hostesses will attend and contribute to the evening. Former Buttons Chefs Billy Kidd and Ty Frazier will create Southern appetizers from the Buttons Restaurant’s original menu. There will also be additional food items and food trucks on site including Fat Face Full by Angie Edwards, Angi’s Louisiana Kitchen, and The Rim Restaurant Waterside.

The “Button’s Family Affair Benefit Concert” will take place on Wednesday, January 31 at the Ridglea Theater located at 6025 Camp Bowie Blvd from 5 pm-12 am. Doors will open at 5 pm and performances will begin at 6 pm. Tickets range from $25 for general admission to $400 for VIP tables. They can be purchased on Eventbrite by visiting Button's Family Affair Benefit Concert Tickets.

The benefit is made possible through sponsors that include The Ridglea Room Theatre, Chef Billy Kidd of Taco Casa, Chef Ty Frazier of Our Door to Yours, Fat Face Full, Angie’s Louisiana Kitchen and Catering, The Rim Restaurant Waterside and MJ’s Apparel.

For those who cannot attend the concert, donations can be made on the GoFundMe page set up for Chef Keith “Buttons” Hicks.

Button’s Family Affair Benefit Concert, January 31, at the Ridglea Theater, 6025 Camp Bowie Blvd. Doors open at 5 pm. Tickets range from $25 for general admission to $400 for VIP tables.

charity chefs

Breakfast News

White Rock Cafe in North Richland Hills is a breakfast & lunch gem

White Rock Cafe

A family-owned cafe is serving Mexican eats and coffee in North Richland Hills: Called White Rock Cafe, it's located at 7640 NE Loop 820 #110, in North Hills Village, in a former event space called Eventfully Yours, where it opened in May.

Not to be confused with White Rock Coffee or White Rock Lake, White Rock Cafe is named after a location in Oaxaca, Mexico — Rosa Blanca — and the ancestral hometown of sisters Jenny and Stephanie Pantoja, who own the restaurant with their cousin Kevin Nazario.

"It's where my father grew up," Jenny says. But she and her sister and her cousin all grew up in NRH.

“We decided to open in North Richland Hills because even though we live on the edge of Fort Worth, we kind of grew up here and are familiar with the people," Jenny says. “That’s why we decided this would be the perfect community to open a breakfast place.”

Their menu ranges from Mexican breakfast to comfort food to burgers and chicken-fried steak. There are all your bacon-and-egg-and-pancake combos with choice of potatoes or grits, but there are also crepes, topped with berries, and a Mexican Benedict, featuring an English muffin topped with grilled red onions, green peppers, seasoned chorizo, poached eggs, avocado, and Hollandaise sauce.

They also have a coffee program including brewed coffee, espresso, white coffee, hot chocolate, and hot teas.

White Rock CafeWhite Rock Cafe

Lunch has a homey home-cooking vibe, including a daily special with dishes like chicken fried steak and pot roast with two sides and Texas toast for only $8. There's a perfect California club with crisp bacon, red tomato slices, and fresh Romaine on toast, neatly trimmed, for $10; and that DFW classic combo of grilled cheese sandwich served with tomato-basil soup.

Prices are low, topping out at $14 for chilaquiles. They're open every day from 7 am-3 pm.

Jenny works in a surgery program most days when she’s not at the restaurant. She got her start working at a breakfast restaurant and grew to appreciate the hours and the culture, inspiring her and her family to open this breakfast cafe of their own.

It's a friendly, tidy place, with black vinyl booths and a lovely mural on the wall that summons the Mexican area for which it is named.

“My father used to work at a Cracker Barrel and other breakfast places, then he had the dream of opening his own place,” Jenny says. “That was the same for me too."

breakfast openings