‘I love it’: Peek inside new-look Drake’s Duck-In as it prepares to relaunch. Here’s when you can go

One of downtown Columbia’s most stalwart restaurants is ready for a grand reintroduction, and it’s gotten a serious glow-up.

Drake’s Duck-In, the long-running fried chicken joint that has been on the Columbia landscape for more than a century, will will have its grand reopening at 1544 Main St. on Tuesday, March 21, according to restaurant officials.

The Main Street location has been closed for a year as it has undergone a complete renovation and overhaul. While the Main Street spot was closed, Drake’s operated a temporary location on Hampton Street. That temporary spot shuttered in February.

While the formal opening on Main Street is slated for March 21, Drake’s will have soft opening sessions with staff training from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 14-16 and March 18-19. Restaurant leaders are asking for customer patience and feedback during those soft openings, and patrons can get $10 in “Duck Bucks” for their next visit.

Aesthetic changes to the restaurant will be immediately apparent to longtime customers. Gone are the rickety, multi-colored booths and tables that once lined the walls. They have been replaced by a host of new booths, chairs and tables that play against the clean white, navy and yellow tones that flow through the dining room. Drake’s also has added counter seating with stools at different spots throughout the space, including near the front windows that look out onto Main Street.

But physical changes aren’t the only things that are new at Drake’s. Restaurant owners Matthew Bridges and Daniel Boan have brought on City Grit Hospitality Group, led by Sarah Simmons and Aaron Hoskins, to help spearhead the reopening.

Simmons said she has been consulting with Boan and Bridges on the project since last year and will have a hand in operating the business throughout 2024. Simmons and Hoskins, who were finalists for a prestigious James Beard Foundation award in 2023, run several popular restaurants across Columbia, including Il Focolare pizzeria, smallSUGAR cafe and Gervais Street’s City Grit restaurant and culinary shop.

Bridges said it has been a “roller coaster of emotion” in the last year as the Main Street location was closed and overhauled. While Drake’s has had a presence, in one place or another, in Columbia since 1907, it has been at 1544 Main St. for the last 28 years. The building at 1544 Main St. was built in the 1870s, according to Historic Columbia.

“As far as anticipation for this location, we are very proud of what it has become through this renovation, and we are very amped and ready to reopen and reintroduce ourselves to Main Street,” Bridges said.

‘Telling a story’ with new menu tweaks

As Drake’s re-emerges at 1544 Main, both Simmons and Bridges noted that there will be some changes to the Drake’s menu. However, both were clear that the restaurant’s storied fried chicken will remain the same.

“Every piece of chicken will be fried the exact same way it was before we closed,” Bridges emphasized.

But various ingredients up and down the menu have been upgraded, restaurant leaders noted. For instance, Drake’s will now make its various sauces — ranch, honey mustard, etc. — in-house. There also will be several new sauces, including a Szechuan-style sauce. That’s a nod to the family of Bridges’ wife, Beverly, which owned Asian restaurants in the Lowcountry for a number of years.

“We wanted a way to add things to the menu that made sense and told a story and wasn’t just jumping on a bandwagon,” Simmons said of the Szechuan offering. “So, as we started talking and with the things I was learning about Daniel and Matthew and their families, I really was like, ‘Let’s try this.’”

Other new entries on the menu will include a vegetarian chicken fried tofu sandwich, as well as salads. One of those salads is specifically designed to be shared family-style, Simmons said.

And, for those looking for some libations, the new version of Drake’s will also offer beer and wine.

“(Beer and wine) won’t take a front seat here; we are still food-first,” Bridges said. “But if someone prefers to have a beer with fried chicken — and I don’t know too many people who don’t like that combo — we can offer that.”

Drake’s is also upgrading its breakfast options. They’ve switched to Belgian-style waffles for the chicken-and-waffles, Simmons noted. The restaurant also has added added overnight oats and granola for a grab-and-go breakfast offering. And Drake’s will offer classic diner-style breakfasts with eggs, grits, biscuits and breakfast meats.

“There is nowhere on Main Street, really, to get a good, old, classic breakfast,” Simmons said. “It’s really exciting to design a menu that, I think, helps fill a huge gap on Main Street.”

Simmons said she has taken note of the love for Drake’s Duck-In from people from all walks of life across Columbia.

“Everyone has a story to tell, and that’s so important,” she said. “That’s really another reason we wanted to be involved, because this brand is important to the city, and we want to make sure we do it justice, every step of the way.”

Columbia’s Main Street has seen a renaissance in the last 15 years, emerging from a once-moribund corridor to a bustling place with new restaurants, bars, stores, boutiques, hotels, the Nickelodeon Theater, the Columbia Museum of Art and more. Bridges said the effort to renovate and relaunch Drake’s is a nod to that changing Main Street.

“In order to be sustainable, we have to walk that line between our history and what is going on and the maturing of the Main Street District,” Bridges said. “We know what we could bring as an older brand, and then meshing that with the modern systems and know-how of City Grit, we saw that as a way to help us bridge that gap between what we were and what Drake’s in the 21st century really should be.”

Drake’s regulars who visit the upgraded restaurant will recognize a familiar face in longtime general manager Edwina “Tiny” Harmon. She was working to help get the place ready for relaunch when a reporter from The State dropped by recently. Harmon said she’s pleased with the new space.

“I love it,” she said. “I don’t just like it, I love it.”