Black Duck takes flight on Sunset
If you’re going to Christopher Hubert’s new restaurant thinking it’s going to be Union Park West, think again.
“That would be ridiculous, I’m not that limited,” he said with a laugh. “This is a completely different concept. At Union Park we have a very formal style that is unique to that dining room. But my cooking style, methods and techniques remain the same. I’m still using proper methods and presentation while using quality ingredients in a totally different concept.”
The Black Duck.
That’s the totally different concept.
Black Duck on Sunset, to be precise.
It has replaced the former Peaches on Sunset with a neatly styled 55-seat dining room that offers ribs and chicken wings on the same menu as char-grilled wild salmon and braised red wine lamb shank.
“It’s a very eclectic menu. The two entities (restaurants) have two different personalities. This is light, more casual…we are priced more moderately than Union Park,” Hubert said. “We are a vacation destination, and vacationing people expect a certain quality of ingredients that is the standard at Union Park, but here it’s in more of a relaxed atmosphere.”
Almost like a retro diner that time warped into West Cape May, with starkly contrasting blacks and whites throughout the dining room, including the marvelous historical photos of old Cape May that hang on the walls.
“The conception is more Napa Valley. When my wife (Pam) and I traveled through there we were surprised by the quality of the food, no matter where you went or what you ordered,” he said.
Asked if he wouldn’t be the object of some snickering Cape May food snobs, Hubert bristled.
“Some of my favorite foods are on this menu. I’m a food snob when it’s not prepared properly, or it’s misleading on the menu, or it’s not presented well, or if it’s not fresh. I wouldn’t do wings and ribs if it they weren’t done with all fresh ingredients. It’s not like it’s something frozen coming out of a box. It’s not bar food, it’s somewhere in the middle. The wings are fresh served on a bed of fresh greens with real blue cheese crumbled on top.
“Besides,” he added, “I eat pizza, I like McDonald’s French fries. Who doesn’t?”
The Black Duck opened this past weekend to very good numbers, and although weary from more than a month of preparing the foundation, menu, signs, décor, kitchen set-up, and everything else that goes with a start-up, Hubert was actually relieved to get into the kitchen and cook.
“It’s been 35 days of 16 hours a day with a lot of help from our friends,” he said. “I was the seat cushion guy, the painter, the window treatment guy, the ordering guy…the cooking part after all this is the easiest; and the funnest.”
Hubert has gifted chefs working for him, one is Clay Brandenburg at Union Park, and the other is Christopher Crookston, who will be the chef at the Black Duck. He was most recently working for Le Bec Fin, in Philadelphia, and had previously worked for Hubert at the Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel as well as at Union Park.
“Our expansion is a good opportunity for both those individuals as well as myself,” he said.
The name was picked in part by Chris and Pam’s 6-year-old son, William, who loves to take walks with his mom around Cape May Point State Park and spot birds. The American Black Duck is one of his favorites.
“My wife is the real avid birder, but we do enjoy it. I like when the raptors are here, and my son has been an avid duck person since he was a baby, ever since we took him to his first duck pond. And the name gave us a chance to build into the theme,” he said.
“My husband has vision, he really does. Oh my goodness, (the restaurant) looks wonderful,” said Pam. “We had family and Union Park employees come in (recently for a test run) and they were just wowed by the pictures (from Betty Steger) and the way it looked, it’s so different from the way it was.”
“It’s striking,” Chris added. “Nothing is as it was before. They (Craig Needles and George Pechin) were different owners with different tastes. This has kind of an old Cape May porch feel to it.”
The idea for a second venture had rattled around in Chris’s mind for several years before the opportunity to buy Peaches presented itself.
“I’ve been literally walking around with a business plan for five years, although the concept seemed to change with the building. We were even looking in Wildwood for some time but couldn’t find something we wanted. Then we came upon this,” he said.
It has worked already on another level. When Chris looks out the back of The Black Duck, he sees the restaurant where he used to live and work.
“I met Pam there (at Mangia, Mangia). I was the sous chef and she was a waitress. Every time I look out there and see that bedroom window, I feel like my life has come full circle,” he said.
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed
at seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
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Check out his Cape Cuisine food blog