Visitors to Memphis, Tennessee, who might be looking for elegant French cuisine won’t find any duck on the menu at Chez Philippe, the restaurant located in the Peabody Hotel at 149 Union Avenue. This is, perhaps, one of the only French restaurants worldwide that does not offer this dish and there is a very unique reason behind it. If visitors make their way to the lobby’s fountain and find a place among the other spectators, they will find a few world-famous ducks and likely hear the story behind them…
…To be fair to other ducks that may enjoy the experience of living at the Peabody Hotel, each duck is only on site for three months before “retiring” to the farm on which they were raised. Because of this relatively short stay at the hotel, the ducks are not fully domesticated so they can return to the wild more easily. In December of 2013, for the first time since the Peabody Duck March was established, a team of ducks was retired to a new location. This was none other than the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee! Speaking about the exciting event, Jeff Arnett was quoted as saying, “Jack Daniel’s and the Peabody Ducks have been connected from the very beginning, so it’s only natural that we would welcome a few of our webbed-footed friends to the Distillery.” He also mentioned that “these will be some of the best cared for ducks in the world, feasting on the same quality grain and cave spring water we use to make our whiskey.”
Additional information about the Peabody Ducks will be provided in Volume III of the Jack Daniel’s Bottle Collector’s Guide which has an anticipated release in the Fall of 2022.
