To achieve success Chef Kevin Hickey traveled the globe, living in places like London and Dublin, only to head back to his roots in Chicago. He started out at the Four Seasons restaurant when he was just 25 years and stayed with the company for the next 19 years. According to Hickey,
“The Four Seasons raised me but I had to come back to Chicago to get my Michelin Star.”
Having acquired that most coveted of culinary achievements, Hickey and his family were ready for something new. Leaving the Four Seasons enabled him to fulfill some lifelong dreams and ambitions. He now owns a restaurant on the very street where he grew up. Enter the Duck Inn. This is the tavern and restaurant once owned by his great grandmother which Hickey bought and then opened in Bridgeport in 20l4.
The Duck Inn is the latest restaurant from Rockit Ranch, the restaurant and nightclub development and management group led by bon vivant Billy Dec. The Duck Inn has gotten excellent reviews. Its specialties include duck fat hot dogs and rotisserie duck. Patrons can find Hickey toiling nightly, and sometimes also his wife Javalen and son Declan. Hickey notes with a smile:
“People love the hot dogs. They’re very popular.”
He still has a hamburger sandwich on the menu, something that was on the first menu of his great grandmother’s restaurant. Referencing his younger days, Hickey says,
“I’ve always had a knack for cooking. My mother who was in politics, never cooked. She’d give my sister money to go get us something to eat and my sister would pocket the money and I would make us something to eat. Our favorite thing was Stauffer French Bread Pizza. I could recreate the flavor profiles till mine tasted exactly like Stauffer.”
We interviewed Hickey during September’s Chicago Gourmet, a celebration of food and wine, presented by Bon Appétit, which transforms Chicago’s Millennium Park from gorgeous architectural green space into the grandest of fine eating grounds. Hosted by Chef Rick Bayless of Frontera and others, the event has an impressive line-up of dining, wine and spirits.
The festivities include storytelling, theater, demonstrations and lots of culinary stars like Hickey. He was there speaking on behalf of Country Financial, a group of US insurance and financial services companies at the event, where Hickey led the talk on farm-to-table eating and cooking, as well as other Chicago fine dining attributes.
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Jane Bokun
- Photography
- Kevin Hartmann
