The Muddy Duck on Dundas Street in Mississauga is closing its doors
Article content
This famous duck was able to avoid many attempts to clip its wings over the past four decades.
Article content
No bird can fly forever.
It wasn’t the hunters who took down this iconic chicken, nor was it the latest hot restaurant or culinary trend.
The Muddy Duck on Dundas Street in Mississauga had managed to stay above the ground for all in attendance since 1978.
But then COVID-19 came along and it turned out to be the formidable enemy that the iconic restaurant simply couldn’t dodge.
“There were many factors that played a role, but the coronavirus was definitely huge,” owner Luis Orozco said.
Closures, closures, vaccine passports, a struggling economy, rising costs for food and operations, and a changing country, and so an icon of the west will fly into the sunset.
“It was a perfect storm,” said the owner.
They could plan to survive many things, but a seemingly endless pandemic was not one of them.
Article content
“It’s not easy because we love our clients and we love our staff,” Orozco said.
“But with the need to sign a new lease, it just didn’t make sense with the future of our industry so uncertain.”
It’s hard enough to fill restaurants in times of a pandemic, but after two years of outages, it’s nearly impossible.
Add in the vaccine passport mandates and all of a sudden some regulars couldn’t get in.
“I was here yesterday and people came to the door and asked if they needed a passport for vaccinations.” said Orozco whose staff said yes.
People left the restaurant cordially, but that’s an example of something that COVID-19 has brought to the reality of running a restaurant in 2021.
Of course, that’s just one factor, but an example of a changing landscape.
Article content
That’s the bad new. The positive is that Muddy Duck has meant so much to many for so long.
Many waddled out and squawked for a picture with the pet Walter in front. Many have photos of family reunions there.
“We are all our family,” Orozco said.
“We feel part of so much.”
Birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, Sunday morning breakfasts, and sponsorship of local sports. If you look on the wall, they still have a lot of the teams that they endorsed and if you look closer, you’ll see the kids who came to play in the NHL, including Max Domi.
The Muddy Duck, whether they were mayors like Bonnie Crombie, Hazel McCallion or Rob Ford or a famous musician like Kim Mitchell, treated everyone like a star.
For the rest of this week and on Saturdays and Sundays until 3 p.m. M., People can stop by for a Duck Club sandwich or Schnitzel a la Duck more and say goodbye to former employees Peter Joedicke, Rachel Ryckman, Theo Arbor, Ponampalm Siuakamaran and Nimala Siuakamaran, who are working hard to finish the management of this restaurant long overdue with the same great service and food that it had when it started all those decades ago.
“We love people and we love being part of their experiences,” Orozco said.
“It’s hard to get away from all that.”
It may not be forever.
“Maybe we’ll find another location and reopen down the road,” Orozco said.
Perhaps the muddy duck will one day fly again.
For now, however, he delves into Mississauga history.
Reference-torontosun.com