…and that would be the son of a couple that she and my late father used to give dance classes to when I was a kid, along with a bunch of other couples who wanted to look snazzy on the dance floor. I used to stay over at his family’s house on the night of the dance lessons. Our whole family would stay the night, you see, because we lived way out in the mountains and it was too long of a drive late at night. I think he was technically my babysitter, as he was old enough to keep an eye on me and his little sister while our collective parents were out cuttin’ a rug. His sister and I would eventually go on to attend High School together years later.
I distinctly remember watching “Valley Girls” on HBO (my first memory of watching cable…we had 3 channels, only 2 if it was cloudy) with his sister, after she begged him not to tell on us (as it was rated R, and we were like 9 or 10).
He’s changed the spelling of his last name, you see, ever so slightly. I suppose the extra vowels might make him more appealing as a foodie TV personality? Who knows. It wasn’t until he mentioned the name of his hometown on one of his “Diners and Dives” episodes (he was in a Ferndale in another state, and mentioned that he was from Ferndale, CA) that got my mom a googlin’ who he was.
I’ve only seen his show once, and I knew he looked familiar, but I (or my mom) never would have figured it out without knowing the name of his hometown.
Ferry is the family name we knew them by. Not sure if the family lore includes some sort of Ellis Island switch from the old country or what. I can see his dad easily being from an Italian lineage, though.
We took the Court of Master Sommeliers Intro course and exam together a couple of years ago. (He passed, I passed.) This was just before the Next Food Network Star aired. I was sitting around one day after class when a preview for the show came on and was just like “Hey, I was just talking to that guy!” He’d only introduced himself as the owner of his local restaurants and hadn’t said a peep about the show.
It’s not unusual to see him out and about or at his restaurants. He’s often at many of the foodie events around here like Sonoma County Showcase and the Harvest Fair Gala Night so I run into him at those too.
Since his restaurant group is one of our local accounts, I was tasked with procuring a 9 liter bottle to be etched and filled for his birthday a couple of months ago. He seems like a nice enough guy, but I can’t say I know him really, so who knows. His restaurants are pretty good.