Gone for years, jazz musicians and restaurant staffers reunite to help Fort Worth chef

Ovation Restaurant gave way to Buttons Food and Music, and the jazz music never missed a beat.

More than 30 musicians who played or sang at the much-missed west Fort Worth soul food restaurant will gather for a reunion show Jan. 31 to help pay former chef Keith “Buttons” Hicks’ medical bills.

Tickets remained early this week for the “Buttons Family Affair Benefit,” gathering musicians and staffers from the old restaurant from 6 p.m. to midnight at the Ridglea Theater.

Buttons changed hands and closed in 2020 after a 12-year run as a groundbreaking soul food restaurant and Sunday home-cooking jazz brunch. Hicks went on to co-found The Rim in Fort Worth and Burleson.

For now, Hicks is hoping for a double lung transplant. He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

On a gofundme.com page seeking $50,000 in Hicks’ name is this message: “This stage of my Life has been a struggle. I am currently on oxygen and haven’t been able to work doing what I do Best, which is Cooking with Love! … ThankYou for the Prayers, Text, Phone calls and much appreciated Donations. Much Love!!”

In an announcement, former Buttons co-owner Carolyn Hughes was quoted as saying, “For so many years, he brought so much ‘Love, Peace and Gritz’ to each of our lives and now he needs us.”

Former Buttons chefs will cook familiar appetizers and The Rim Waterside will be among food vendors, according to the announcement.

Brent Johnson, founder and former owner of The Rim, said the fundraiser for Hicks “is just a small token for a man who is loved by all and a man that does not know a stranger.”

Hicks, a West Virginia product, cooked at the Renaissance Worthington hotel, Ellington’s Southern Table downtown and the short-lived Gunsmoke Grill steakhouse on West Berry Street before the opening of Ovation, a jazz and soul food restaurant next door to the Ridglea Theater.

He served the city’s first widely popular chicken-and-waffles along with pot roast, catfish and a variety of homestyle dishes, along with a signature shrimp-and-grits.

For advance tickets, search Eventbrite for “Button’s Family Affair Benefit Concert.”