Cafe owner carries on after husband's suicide
ECHO, Ore. (AP) — In a crisp white chef's coat and apron, Challis Buck rarely stops moving at the H&P Cafe in Echo.
Unusually tall, with long blonde hair, an easy smile and hands that reflect many hours at the stove and sink, Buck, 28, entices her customers into the modern age with dishes such as pan-seared ahi with chayote squash slaw.
"I like to go outside the box and see what I can make happen," she said. "People seem to like what I'm doing."
But Buck's best customers also fill her booths as a statement of support.
In August, a few months after she and her husband, Danny Besser, bought the cafe and moved to Echo from New Jersey — Buck is a 2001 Echo graduate — she awoke one morning to find Besser dead in their backyard shed, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Like many family members of those who commit suicide, Buck said she did not see it coming. The couple had walked away from lucrative careers in upscale resorts to raise a family in Echo, and they were stressed from the move and nervous about their new business, she said.
But she had no idea Besser was depressed. They had hosted a barbecue the evening before, cooking dishes from a new menu for a group of friends, and he seemed upbeat and as excited about the future as she was.
"It makes you question how truly well you'll ever know anybody," Buck said, her eyes swimming with tears.
She later learned from Besser's parents that he attempted suicide three times before. Devastated, Buck closed the cafe for seven weeks, during which many in Echo wondered if she would open her doors again.
When she finally flipped her "open" sign, this time as head chef rather than server, a wave of community sympathy met her at the door. People brought her gifts — bags of potatoes, potted herbs and bouquets of flowers — and filled the cafe on her first night, even though the opening was unannounced.
Chef Challis Buck, right, plates orders of food with help from her cousin Travis Newman on Dec. 1, 2011 at the H&P Cafe in Echo, Ore. Buck’s best customers also fill her booths as a statement of support. In August, a few months after she and her husband, Danny Besser, bought the cafe and moved to Echo from New Jersey _ Buck is a 2001 Echo graduate, she awoke one morning to find Besser dead in their backyard shed, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, E.J. Harris)
Buck's family gathered around her to help. Her brother now cooks breakfast, her mom helps clean up at night and her niece waits tables after school. Even her grandmother, Anna Marie Buck, chips in a few hours every day.
"I didn't have to ask," Buck said. "They all just kind of stood up behind me and said, 'This is what we need to do.'"
Susan Wolverton, soon to marry Buck's cousin, waits tables full time. A former reserve police officer and Stanfield's current code enforcement officer, Wolverton said serving was unfamiliar territory for her.
"I was scared to death at first, but everyone here has been really kind," she said.
Business is sometimes slow, she added, but Buck, who earned a culinary degree from the Art Institute of New York, is determined to succeed.
"She has been a rock," Wolverton said.
Buck still has rough days, she said, when she wonders if she will make it through the day. The thought of Besser brings pain, but she takes solace in knowing that others have gone down the same road. Several people have approached her with their stories and offered to be there if ever Buck needs to talk.
"There's not too many people who walk through those doors that don't have a story," she said.
Buck also finds comfort in her art. She likes to cook "outside the box," but she also takes old favorites, such as pecan pie, to new heights. And some things at the H & P will never change: Thursday is, now as ever, chili day.
"I like being the diamond in the rough," she said. "Not everyone knows we're here, but those that do, it's kind of their hip little secret."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
