Pounded twice but Lee waterfront restaurant ‘ain’t giving up’

The  Mucky Duck, a well-known waterfront restaurant on Lee County’s Captiva Island, is primed to rebuild — even after the double whammy of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. 

Helene, says the restaurant in a Sept. 30 Facebook post, was actually worse for the establishment than Hurricane Ian in 2022. That post included the hashtag aintgivingup. 

"Hi everyone, we would like to thank you so very much for all of the heartfelt condolences and well wishes since Hurricane Helene came and gave us a pretty good smack in the face!,” reads the Sept. 30 post. “We did have a lot of sand pile up and a couple of broken windows (weather people said don’t bother boarding up) and of course there’s a lot of random damage and some still unknowns until we get the sand fully cleared, but…our faithful crew (is) hard at work busting butt so we can open up again as soon as possible and welcome you all bac

Then came Milton. Photos posted by the restaurant Oct. 10 showed the extensive damage. Many of the more than 700 comments shared similar themes of how special the memories were from eating there for birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions. Formerly the Gulf View Inn on Captiva Island, new owners rebranded it as The Mucky Duck in 1976, according to a history of the restaurant on its website.  In 1980, Swiss restaurateur Andreas Bieri purchased an interest in The Mucky Duck, and was its head chef and manager prior to taking on other business endeavors, the website states. Bieri bought out his partners between 2011 and 2016.  

The latest social media post continues the ‘ain't giving up theme.”  

"Hi everyone, we obviously have some work to do but we are gathering our village and plan to make the necessary repairs to our property as soon as possible,” the post states. “There is road damage on Captiva that needs to be fixed but we know Lee County will make that happen at their earliest ability. What happened was very disheartening of course, but for the sake of our staff and everyone who loves the Duck, we are going to give it another go. We cannot express how much your love, support and prayers mean to us.”