Bridgeport native returns to neighborhood, opens The Duck Inn
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Many of Chicago's top chefs do their training or work in other cities, only to find themselves coming home, eventually. That's the case for a Bridgeport native, who has literally come home to the old neighborhood.
You'd think spending years with the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel Group would spoil someone. But Kevin Hickey only used those years in California and overseas to help mold his philosophy. He recently teamed up with a local restaurant group, overseeing menus at Sunda and Bottlefork in River North. But his latest project is also his most personal.
Hickey's great-grandmother opened a joint called The Duck Inn during Depression in his native Bridgeport, so when the world-weary chef had a chance to take over a derelict space in the old neighborhood, he jumped at the chance to revive the name and the spirit.
"I grew up in a Polish, Mexican, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian neighborhood next to Chinatown and across the river from Pilsen," Hickey said.
Hickey's menu includes some luxe touches like foie gras that's poached, whipped with a touch of cream, gelatin and winter spices, then capped with a liquidy quince fruit that's been cooked in sweet wine, served with homemade English muffins.
But the restaurant's namesake comes directly from his memories at the Old Prague restaurant.
"And they served half a duck with bread dumplings and gravy. I just loved it, I was 9-years-old and loved it," he said.
He uses the same birds you'd find at a Chinese Peking Duck house; air-drying, brining then slow-roasting the leg and thigh in a rotisserie while the fat drips over fingerling potatoes.
"We load up the bottom of the rotisserie with Yukon gold potatoes that have been cooked in duck fat; they go in there to crisp on the cast iron and cook in the drippings from the duck," Hickey said.
The potatoes are mixed with seasonal ingredients to make a salad - in this case, watermelon radish, pomegranates and blood oranges - and served as a base for the pan-roasted duck breast along with the rotisserie leg and thigh.
Up in the lively bar, try a cocktail, or one of their quirky, homemade bar snacks, like rice flour fries or a serious riff on the Chicago Dog. Maybe finish off the night with some warm, sticky toffee pudding.
"I wanted to have a seven night-a-week neighborhood tavern that had really great bar food," he said.
The Duck Inn
2701 S. Eleanor
312-724-8811
