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'Gastro-Tavern' The Duck Inn Is Hiring in Bridgeport

By Casey Cora | August 11, 2014 7:56am
 The Duck Inn "gastro-tavern" will be led by acclaimed chef Kevin Hickey.
The Duck Inn "gastro-tavern" will be led by acclaimed chef Kevin Hickey.
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DNAinfo/Casey Cora

BRIDGEPORT — The Duck Inn, the anticipated restaurant and bar that will take over Bridgeport's old-school Gem Bar, is hiring.

Led by Kevin Hickey, the highly revered executive chef behind Allium at the Four Seasons, the Duck Inn at 2701 S. Eleanor St. will be a "gastro-tavern."

The restaurant is looking for cooks, hosts and hostesses, servers, bartenders, a sous chef and managers. Those interested can apply online. It's expected to open in the fall or winter.

Hickey, of Bridgeport, recently left Allium and was named a partner of Rockit Ranch, the restaurant industry team led by Billy Dec. He's been working to lead the group's Bottlefork, a River North hotspot that's garnered lots of love from local dining critics.

According to the local history book “Images of America: Bridgeport,” the Duck Inn's previous occupant, the Gem Bar tavern, was owned by Polish immigrant Joseph Gembara, who opened the bar “to feed canal workers and sell them hooch out his back door.”

Gembara’s son, Eugene “Herman” Gembara, was a bridge tender who “went on to run the corner tavern for more than 50 years while taking part in two other mainstays of Bridgeport life: Democratic politics and the public payroll,” according to a Tribune story noting his death in September 2009.

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