Ducks Eatery will close this weekend after 8-plus years on 12th Street

Ducks Eatery will be shutting down after service on Saturday here on 12th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

The owners, siblings Julie and Will Horowitz, made the announcement Friday on Instagram:

After a tough few months, we have made the very heavy decision to close our doors for good on Nov. 7. While this is not how we envisioned our time on 12th Street ending, we're choosing to focus on all of the extraordinary experiences that have come out of being part of your community for nearly nine years. 

Thank you for sharing your sense of adventure, your stories and your warmth with us. We are humbled and so grateful.

After opening in August 2012, Ducks Eatery was known for a creative meat-centric menu ... that evolved into more sustainable, non-meat items (including that smoked watermelon a few years back).

The two also previously ran Harry & Ida’s Meat and Supply Co. on Avenue A until last November. 

Harry & Ida's opened in June 2015, and immediately drew raves for their pastrami. The market, which specialized in preserved foods and smoked meats, was named for their great-grandparents Harry and Ida Zinn, Hungarian immigrants who had a store in Harlem. 

Updated 4 p.m.

Eater has more on the closure:

Will Horowitz attributed the closure to the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic in a phone call with Eater on Monday. Though the restaurant’s longtime landlords ... attempted to negotiate a rent agreement, keeping the business afloat on takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining sales would have been “impossible,” he says.

...Horowitz says the restaurant’s indoor dining room could accommodate no more than 10 people at the state-mandated 25 percent capacity.

“It would have been a death wish going into winter,” he says

Image via Manhattan Sideways