What Happened to Ducky's Family Restaurant? (Kokomo, IN)

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) visited Ducky's Family Restaurant, a longtime diner at 816 E. Markland Avenue in Kokomo, Indiana, for the episode "Feathers Fly," which aired October 30, 2013, opening the show's seventh season alongside the Mama Campisi's episode. Ducky's had served the Kokomo community for more than 50 years, founded decades earlier by Donald "Ducky" Duncan and later run by his family, including owner Bill Duncan, who spoke to reporters about the business's struggles. According to Inside INdiana Business, the restaurant had weathered earlier setbacks, including the founder's death and a decision to go smoke-free ahead of a citywide smoking ordinance that took effect in 2006.

As shown in the episode, host Robert Irvine's team spent roughly two days and about $10,000 reworking the restaurant's menu, kitchen operations and dining room in the show's standard format, aiming to help the family restaurant regain its footing after decades in business at the same Markland Avenue location. That renovation did not resolve the business's underlying financial problems. Inside INdiana Business reported on August 18, 2015, that Ducky's had been shut down by the Indiana Department of Revenue roughly two months after the episode aired, with owner Bill Duncan telling the outlet that the business owed approximately $200,000 in unpaid state taxes at the time of the closure.

That places the restaurant's closure around late 2013 or very early 2014, only a matter of months after its national television appearance, according to Inside INdiana Business's account of the timeline. A Yelp listing for Ducky's Family Restaurant, updated as recently as May 2026, continues to mark the Markland Avenue address as permanently closed, and no subsequent reopening under the Ducky's name or new ownership at that address has been identified in the sources reviewed for this record, consistent with the tax-related shutdown Inside INdiana Business described in its 2015 report.