Nickel City Gritty: Cameron Rector
I love this blog for SO many reasons.
I think the main reason would have to be all of the super cool people that I’ve been able to meet through this interview series. So many of these people have become friends, and that’s priceless to me.
Cam is one of these people.
I met Cameron Rector in the winter of 2019 while doing some promotion through the Buffalo Blogging Network, and we quickly bonded through our love of all things supernatural (whenever I find someone who loves X-Files as much as I do, I need to hold onto them tightly) I learned that he had owned one of my favorite restaurants in Buffalo, Vera, and I knew that he had to be one of my interviewees.
Now, full disclosure, this interview took place in the summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic (I mean, we are still in the pandemic, but it was fresh at that point) and I’m just getting to write this out now because I am a garbage person, but here he is!
Make sure to listen to his DILF summer playlist while you read his interview:
This is Nickel City Gritty, and this is Cameron Rector.
Tell me your backstory.
I moved to Buffalo from Poughkeepsie, New York in 2001 and fell in love with the city. To me it was like the Wild West, you could do anything and it cost like peanuts to live here, so it was great. What kind of drove me crazy was that everybody I would meet was always itching to leave, and I had just shown up and was like, “No, you guys don’t understand. We can do anything that we want here.” It costs nothing, so we could have as much fun and do as much insane stuff as we want. We can create whatever we want in this town. I worked in the restaurant business and continued to do that once I moved to Buffalo, and just kept going with it and working my way up, managing restaurants and bars, and I got to a point where it was time to do my own. In 2011 I opened up Vera, and that was Buffalo’s first craft cocktail bar. We had that until 2018 and I closed that one location to open up a couple of more locations, and that whole deal kind of fell through. So now I’m just here and since Covid happened our industry is kind of destroyed and we are figuring it out as we go along.
So my first fun question, how would you describe your personal style?
Oh man. I don’t know! I try to be age appropriate, but also have fun and just kind of have something for every occasion. It all depends on where I’m going or who I’m going to be with and what I’ll be doing. So that could be anything. Fall is my favorite time of year so I like to wear more fall fashions. Maybe sexy dad? Living that DILF life! *laughs*
Who or where would you haunt if you were a ghost?
Ohhh that sounds fun. Probably an airplane. That would be scary as fuck, everybody is on edge these days on an airplane, so then to also throw a ghost on there? Oh you’d be losing your shit.
So that would be like snakes on a plane but ghosts on a plane?
Yeah exactly! Would you think that you’d be flying above the Earth and then boom, there’s a ghost. That would be extra scary. A haunted flight. You can’t run, you’re mine for the remainder of the flight.
At what age do you think you became an adult?
I’m still kind of terrified of that. And I’m terrified of that question. I still think I’m becoming an adult, honestly. Yeah. I drank for a long time, and I think that delayed a lot of adult behavior. Five years ago I got sober, so I think that’s when I started to make more adult decisions in my life, so I think I’m on that journey now. Trying to figure out what this age means. I’m enjoying this now, though, because I still feel young and like a kid sometimes, but then I’ve also got shit to do. I find myself even to this day letting go of a lot of the stuff that has reminded me of that Bible verse, wow look at me quoting the Bible on your fucking blog right now *laughs* But it’s like, when I was a child I spoke like a child and did childish things, but now that I’m a man and I put away those childish things…I kind of feel on a daily and weekly basis I’m constantly putting away that kind of stuff and embracing mature masculinity.
Which of your five senses do you think is the strongest?
I have really good eyes. Definitely my eyesight would be my strongest. 20/20 vision.
What is your spirit animal?
I have three favorite animals but I don’t know if I have a spirit animal.
What are your favorite animals?
Lion, I’m a Leo, elephant, and octopus. Elephants never forget and they are big, beautiful beasts and super intelligent. And I just think that the octopus is not from this Earth. They are super intelligent, wise, crafty and clever.
When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with?
I think that I’m a really good listener. People like to talk and share their stories with me and I’m fascinated to hear and learn about them. So people come to me for help, mostly with support. The ability to hold space for people and let them vent in a non-judgmental caring and loving way. I’m always there to offer some type of suggestion or support if they need that, but if they don’t and they just want to talk, I’m here. It’s all about connections. Sharing stories. Not hiding who you are and being your authentic self.
What is your most prized possession?
I’m gonna have to say my Danish wall unit. I really love that thing. I’d be really bummed if something happened to that. I found it on Facebook marketplace from guy in the Southtowns. It’s really awesome. It’s like a desk shelf thing. I love it.
What is something that everyone looks stupid doing?
A pogo stick. Or a unicycle. And both of those things require some skill! They just don’t look cool, though.
What are some of your favorite restaurants in Buffalo?
There are so many good ones. Taj Grill, I’m addicted to. Pho Dollar is really good. Kuni’s is so good. I gravitate towards every day stuff. I haven’t been going out to a lot of fine dining experiences.
To stay with the food questions- what weird food combinations do you enjoy?
Oh of course pineapple and bacon on pizza. I make tuna fish kinda weird, with mayo and mustard and just kind of throwing whatever condiments I have in there to make tuna salad. That could be a weird combination. I put chocolate on a lot of weird stuff. My favorite breakfast food is a Southern thing and it’s biscuits and chocolate syrup. It’s super good. Buttermilk biscuits and chocolate syrup. Sweet and salty. All of it.
What is something that people fear but doesn’t scare you at all?
Hmmm…people can be fearful of social situations that never bother me. Meeting people, meeting strangers never bothers me. New interactions.
If a theme song played every time you entered the room, what would it be?
Probably something from Daft Punk or Tycho, but right now I’m addicted to this kid named Potsu. He’s like a jazz Japanese hip hop guy from LA and he’s like 19 years old and has written some of the best music. The song that he has called “Letting Go” has been my soundtrack right now. It’s so good.
How would you survive a zombie apocalypse?
It’s not the zombies you really have to worry about, it’s the other survivors. So you’d need to limit your interaction until you can really figure out who’s who and bring them into the circle. And then you don’t let anyone else in the circle. The zombies would just end up becoming kind of a nuisance. Like a coyote or a rabid animal. In those kind of scenarios, it’s always the survivors that fuck shit up. That’s the scariest part of that whole thing- what people are willing to do to survive.
The last question I always ask everyone is, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I wanna be happy and dependable…well that’s not true because I already am those things. I just wanna be living my most authentic life. In touch with who I am and how I show up in the world so I can be better for other people. I want to support and help other people as best I can. That’s really it.
