Gary's Duck Inn

The story

Gary Starling opened Gary's Duck Inn in 1945 on South Orange Blossom Trail, just south of where US 441 and US 17 met. A postcard shows a mid-century Modern remodel, and one source says it reopened in August 1949 after a remodel. Starling sold it in 1963 to investors that included Bill Darden and Charley Woodsby. They thought the menu could succeed nationally and opened the first Red Lobster in Lakeland in 1968.

Gary's peaked in the 1970s to mid-1980s, serving about 25,000 pounds of shrimp a year, employing 90 people, covering half an acre and seating 400. Chain competition and the area's declining reputation, including nightclubs and car break-ins, kept customers away. Widening of the highway removed its front parking lot. It closed in 1994, though one source says 1996. The site is now a 7-Eleven and a Dollar General.

What's There Now

A Dollar General and a 7-Eleven.

Everything that was here

• 1945–1994

  Gary's Duck InnRestaurant

  The seafood restaurant whose success pushed its 1960s owners toward Red Lobster, which they opened in Lakeland in 1968.

  See the map in 1946 →

Did you know?

Nearby history