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The Duck Inn's Kevin Hickey Parts Ways With Rockit Ranch Restaurants

By Joe Ward | October 2, 2017 5:13am
 The Duck Inn
The Duck Inn
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DNAinfo/Joe Ward

BRIDGEPORT — The Duck Inn's Kevin Hickey is going solo, as the chef and owner has announced his business will run independent of its former partner, Rockit Ranch Productions.

"In October, The Duck Inn will become independent," Hickey said in a statement announcing the decision. "I will operate the restaurant as my own and I will focus my time and energy on my two families: my wife and son, and The Duck Inn."

After years as the executive chef of the restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, Hickey in 2013 became a partner in Rockit Ranch Productions, the company behind Rockit Bar & Grill, Sunda and Bottlefork, the River North restaurant Hickey helped open. Hickey opened The Duck Inn, 2701 S. Eleanor St., with Rockit Ranch Productions in December 2014, and it quickly became one of the neighborhood's most acclaimed restaurants.

Now Hickey, a Bridgeport native, said he is ready to run the business independently, though his partner and bartender Brandon Phillips will stay.

"As for my focus now, my center of gravity is Bridgeport," Hickey said in the statement. "My family lives down the street from the restaurant. My son buses tables here. I want to do more to raise the profile of this South Side community. To do so, I need to be present."