Passion for excellence still drives restaurateurs
Ford’s Restaurant, located at the top of Trafalgar St, has had many iterations as a cafe´ or restaurant since the late 1980s. I can’t remember what business was operating in the premises before Jane and the late Nigel Price renovated the old building and turned it into Nelson’s first coffee roastery, Pomeroy’s.
The business changed hands a couple of times before Adrian Hill turned it into Bardelicious. It eventually became Ford’s Restaurant and Bar when Garry and Kerry Ford took over the space while they still owned and operated the White Morph in Kaikoura.
Garry is a chef by trade and oversees the running of the kitchen as well as mentoring young chefs through their apprenticeships while Kerry, an accountant, runs the business, including managing staff and the front-of-house operations.
When they first took over the lease for Ford’s, Garry initially stayed in Nelson but later was mostly based in Kaikoura running the kitchen at the White Morph. He kept an eye on the menu at both places while Kerry remained in Nelson running their new enterprise with plenty of commuting between Nelson and Kaikoura for them both.
Last week I talked with Kerry about everything from the challenges of running a hospitality business to commuting between two businesses so far apart and why they do what they do.
Her very quick answer was ‘‘just because I love it, you can’t work this hard and do this job unless you love it. We get a real buzz when everything works well, a bit like hitting the sweet spot with a golf club.
‘‘When it all works and every customer leaves happy, I still get a buzz from that.’’
They first moved to Nelson in 1989. Kerry had a job at the Nelson Marlborough DHB in the finance department while Garry worked as a sous chef at the Rutherford Hotel.
‘‘I studied for a B.Com part-time for 10 years while working full time at the hospital in their accounts department and just worked my way up until I was the financial accountant,’’ Kerry says.
‘‘We also had two children during that time too so lots happened in my life over those 10 years.’’
They had always wanted to own their own hospitality business so when they went to Westport for a weekend they got all excited about the Bay House Cafe´ that was on the market at the time.
‘‘We started on negotiations but it fell through and as we already had our hearts set on buying something we just kept looking,’’ Kerry said. ‘‘The White could be a full time mum.
‘‘We’d each work four nights in Kaikoura and on the last night drive home ready to take the kids to school in the morning,’’ Kerry said. ‘‘It was either Garry, me or my Mum there for them but we made sure we were in the same town for important things.
‘‘The crux of making that work was a great team at the White Morph. By the time the place was written off by a fire in 2013 many of them had been with us for eight years or more. with us as a kitchen hand, did her apprenticeship with Service IQ and she came and helped us start Panama, when we sold that she came back here as sous chef, then head chef when opportunity came up.
‘‘Richard Craig has just re-joined us after two years in London at The Delaunay. When he arrived back in town recently he dropped in looking for a job, we didn’t have one but the next day someone resigned so it worked out really well.’’