Black Duck Restaurant – Boutique Bistro in Manhattan with relaxed atmosphere, live music and great food


 
 
Come and join us at the Black Duck bar!

Conveniently located between Park and Lexington Avenues.

 

 

 

 

Executive Chef: Hector Tice

 

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The Black Duck, a 75-seat restaurant and lounge, is quickly emerging as one of Manhattan's best-kept secrets. Black Duck highlights Pan-Atlantic bistro fare and is housed in the new Park South Hotel, a boutique property located on 28th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. With the look and feel of a neighborhood bistro, the Black Duck offers guests a relaxing and welcoming ambiance and an unpretentious menu. The Black Duck is open every evening.

We offer Happy Hour, Jazz and Classic James Bond Movie Night! See our Events page for more details.  View photos from the James Beard Goodbye Prohibition Party!

Parking

There is a parking garage conveniently located across the street from the Black Duck or a garage located on 28th Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave.

The Tale of the Black Duck

Over a half a century ago, the rumrunner the Black Duck was a fed-dodging legend. During prohibition, the speedy "rummy" continually out-ran the Coast Guard, much to the delight of drinkers throughout New England. For over a decade, the Black Duck was a constant embarrassment to the authorities and was at the top of the "Coqasties” wanted list.

With peace in Europe after World War I, a bizarre chapter in the story of Narragansett Bay began. It was to last 14 years, a period of unparalleled smuggling, piracy, murder, and lawlessness. New words were added to the American vocabulary, such as "hijacking," "speakeasy," "home brew," "rum-running," and "rum row." America's experiment with Prohibition strained the country's moral fiber and consolidated the operations of organized crime.

Initially, the Coast Guard was at a disadvantage to the 75-foot long, armor-plated, and low in profile rumrunners. Some had three big Liberty engines (World War I surplus) capable of attaining speeds of 40 to 50 miles an hour with 1,000 cases of liquor aboard. The motors could be muffled to a whisper, and devices were carried which emitted oily smoke when the rumrunners were closely pursued. Some had double bottoms and false bulkheads to create secret storage spaces for the pyramid-shaped sacks of liquor. But later, the Coast Guard began to use some of the Navy's destroyers to supplement its small fleet of cutters for open-sea patrol and augmented its small craft fleet with captured rumrunners. These, designed to outrun the patrol craft, were among the best chase boats available to the federal agents.

In December 1929, the Black Duck, skippered by Charles Travers, and its crew, finally ran out of luck. A patrol vessel commanded by Alex Cornell (a nautical version of Eliot Ness) spotted the rumrunner off of Newport, Rhode Island. Attempting to escape, the Duck zigged when it should have zagged and caught Coast Guard gunfire broadside, which killed three crew members. Cornell finally had his boat and 383 cases of contraband liquor as well. Subsequently, the public was enraged by the loss of life among their beloved bootleggers. Anti-Coast Guard riots grew so violent in Boston that the district commander had to be "spirited" out of town to avoid a lynching. In the words of Charles Travers, “everybody knew what we were doing. Hell, we used to moor the Duck in the slip next to the Coast Guard cutters during the day! We weren’t exactly friends, but we all knew each other and the rule of the game were that the Coast Guard had to catch you with the alcohol on your boat.”

Ironically, the captured Black Duck was refitted as a Coast Guard patrol vessel. Even worse, it was assigned to Alex Cornell who successfully chased down several rumrunners before prohibition ended in 1933. Occasionally, the legendary smuggler comes alive in the conversations of a few old-timers here at the bar.

Listen to them carefully and then raise a toast to the memory of the Black Duck!






part of the atlantic stars collection:
newport ri / new york ny / martha's vineyard ma / south beach fl