Duck-centric food truck Duck Yeah launches on Long Island
A multigenerational duck farm that had a nearly 80-year run in Moriches has recently come full circle, launching a "farm-to-truck" trailer delivering duck-centric fare around the East End.
Michael Jurgielewicz, whose great-grandfather Branislaw opened Jurgielewicz Duck Farm in 1933, and longtime family friend Stephen "Biggie" Ammirati, have brought the delicacy, now grown in Hamburg, Penn., back to Long Island with the launch of Duck Yeah.
Customers can expect traditional food truck fare, the twist being, well, duck — duck burgers ($13), duck confit quesadillas ($18), duck wings ($15), duck tacos ($16), duck fat fries ($11) and such. "We put together a menu that would be more approachable to the every day consumer," Jurgielewicz said. "People think of duck as an Asian or French delicacy that they won’t cook at their house."
The Duck Yeah food trailer is new to Long Island, but the history behind it dates back about 80 years. Credit: Michael Jurgielewicz
The meat comes from the Pennsylvania-based incarnation of the farm -- Joe Jurgielewicz & Son Ltd. -- opened in 1985. "We’re a completely vertically integrated farm where we hatch, raise, process and distribute duck," Jurgielewicz said.
Ammirati, who handles the day-to-day operations of the mobile eatery, including the cooking, said duck is more "approachable" than you’d think in the kitchen. "I always thought it was something that you had to do for years to do it correctly. But after working with the product," that’s not the case, he said.
All of Duck Yeah’s ingredients are grown on the farm, which are shipped to Long Island.
For now, the trailer is available for private events through the end of the year while the duo works on possible pop-up locations and a more permanent public schedule.
Jurgielewicz, born and raised in Pennsylvania, studied hospitality at Cornell and handles marketing and business development for both the trailer and his family’s farm. Ammirati, who was born on the North Fork, also owns the The Catered Fork off-site catering business and food truck, which is stationed year-round at Jamesport Farm Brewery.
Duck Yeah, eatduckyeah.com and on Instagram @eatduckyeah.
