Heidi Gardner’s glam Valentine’s Day party honored KC’s iconic Peppercorn Duck Club
Heidi Gardner threw another fabulous party in her newly remodeled Johnson County home last week, an early Valentine’s Day soiree that paid loving — and detailed — homage to one of Kansas City’s most iconic restaurants.
Kansas Citians of a certain age will remember the Peppercorn Duck Club inside the former Hyatt Regency Crown Center, now the Sheraton. In its heydays in the 1980s and 90s, the restaurant was one of the city’s most glamorous, romantic places to dine before closing in 2011.
It was a dining experience on another level.
Men were required to wear jackets. Every woman got a rose. The restaurant’s matchbooks were souvenirs. (Different times, remember.)
It was known not only for its duck entrees but an expansive and decadent chocolate dessert bar, said to be the first in the city.
Patrons were served little scoops of fruit sorbet on frosted glass squares with chilled spoons to cleanse their palates before the entree.
Leftovers were wrapped in tin foil shaped like swans.
The “Saturday Night Live” star, a native Kansas Citian, has a soft spot for the restaurant. She mentioned it last year when she opened her Johnson County mid-century modern home to Architectural Digest.
Right inside the front door of her “sexy, chic time capsule” she had displayed personal memorabilia, including a framed matchbox from the Peppercorn Duck Club.
She told the magazine it was “the nicest restaurant in Kansas City and we really had no business going to, but my mom would kind of sneak us in.”
How many Peppercorn Duck Club memories still float around Kansas City?
Two years ago a former sous chef there posted photos of the restaurant on a Kansas City history buffs Facebook page that led to nearly 300 comments. People wrote of celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and prom nights there. After all these years, they remembered the names of waiters and staff.
“We had the same waiter every year and he always made it so special!”
“This was my favorite restaurant growing up! The duck was great, but the lobster bisque, the chocolate bar, and the sommelier Bruce were the best!”
“Where my husband proposed 35 years ago! A favorite restaurant. I remember they would personalize matchbook covers with Happy Birthday, happy anniversary or whatever occasion and your names.”
“Who else experienced ‘Table one’ service at the Peppercorn Duck Club. Special chef appetizer and provided a cordless phone table side to make calls anywhere in the country.”
“I got engaged there, too, at ‘Table One’ in 1990. I still have the matches, and I remember I got a flower and they brought a cordless phone for a phone call. I called my parents and told them I was getting married. Incredible place. The chocolate bar was amazing, too!”
“My mom used to sneak a couple of treats into her purse from the chocolate bar and bring them home for us kids to try.”
“My aunt took me there when I was 12 for my first fancy dinner in a new fancy dress. A wonderful memory.”
Around Valentine’s Day in 2008, longtime and legendary Kansas City food critic Charles Ferruzza, who died five years ago, wrote fondly of the restaurant, then clearly in its last years.
“As trendier restaurants have come and gone, the Peppercorn Duck Club has turned into a relic of an era when dining out was a larger-than-life experience,” he wrote for The Pitch.
“Sweet little touches remain — personalized matchbooks, American Beauty roses for female patrons — but I’ll wager the Duck Club isn’t among the top five restaurants that come to mind in this more competitive era.
“A friend of mine who used to work there frets about the future of a restaurant that was, for most of the 1980s, one of the most successful and glamorous dining rooms in town.
“During two recent visits, I realized that I didn’t mind the Reagan-era brass trim so much. And I’d be disappointed if anything happened to the shiny rotisserie oven where this restaurant’s signature dish roasts slowly, each duck filled with chopped apples and oranges to enhance moisture and flavor.
“The luscious fragrance of those roasting birds and the aroma of buttered, herb-sprinkled crusty bread being grilled right in the center of the room are among the sensory pleasures in a dining room with a lot of sexy details.
“The tables are elegantly set, the banquettes are comfortable and cozy, and the service is extraordinarily attentive ... the Peppercorn Duck Club still pampers patrons in a way that few restaurants do.”
The duck was crispy
Gardner’s Valentine’s Day party was the second she has shared with her Instagram followers in recent months. She threw a glamorous Christmas party there, too.
Her party themes lean into the home’s retro architecture and furnishings. She set up this tableau near the front door for the Peppercorn Duck Club affair.
Gardner hailed her caterer, Succotash, at 2601 Holmes St. in Kansas City, which served rich lobster bisque and, of course, duck.
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She brought back a couple of vendors who helped create the Christmas party. Krystal Creations in Liberty created a cool duck centerpiece.
And Kelsey Earl’s small cottage business, Little Butter Bakery, which created a decadent brownie wreath for Gardner’s holiday party, set up the chocolate bar, a la the restaurant’s Ultra Chocolatta Bar.
And of course, there were matchbook favors ...
And a long-stemmed rose for each female guest.
This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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