‘Comfortable, cozy’ – Take Cover Tiki Club opens in Moline

Matt Lang wants people to visit downtown Moline so they can try a cosmopolitan, basil cucumber gimlet or blueberry bee’s knees. In fact, he wants them to try just about any drink they can think of at the new Take Cover Tiki Club at 1401 Fifth Ave. “We wanted to make an environment that’s comfortable […]

Matt Lang wants people to visit downtown Moline so they can try a cosmopolitan, basil cucumber gimlet or blueberry bee’s knees. In fact, he wants them to try just about any drink they can think of at the new Take Cover Tiki Club at 1401 Fifth Ave.

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“We wanted to make an environment that’s comfortable and cozy. … It’s your favorite third location, not home, not work,” said Matt Lang, one of the operating partners behind the new bar, which is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street and next door to Analog Pizza and Arcade. Mr. Lang, along with Dan Bush, an operating partner and the founder of Bummer City, Inc., which owns Take Cover, joined about 25 guests Friday afternoon, Oct. 11, for a Renew Moline ribbon-cutting ceremony in front the new establishment. “Our mission is to make the Quad Cities as much fun as humanly possible,” Mr. Bush said. He added that Bummer City decided to open the new Take Cover business in downtown Moline because it’s a “walkable downtown” and it looks great. “We like it here, it’s so beautiful,” Mr. Bush said. The business partners added that Take Cover is one of the few craft cocktail bars in the Illinois Quad Cities specializing in innovative, scratch-made syrups while utilizing high-quality spirits. Guests can expect a menu that celebrates the art of cocktail crafting, offering a diverse selection of tropical drinks that transport you straight to the islands. Some of the drink offerings at Take Cover include:

• Basil cucumber gimlet: Gin, basil cucumber syrup and lime.
• Espresso mariner: Espresso, grand mariner, chocolate bitters and sugar.
• Rum punch: Rum blend, mango puree, orange, lime and grenadine.
• Blueberry bee’s knees: Gin, falernum, blueberry honey syrup, lemon and plum bitters.
• Paloma: Tequila, nectarine liqueur, lime, grapefruit and agave.

The business also offers non-alcoholic drinks such as sober daiquiri, sober paloma, mango fizz and sober punch. Those drinks, and many others, were served to customers during two days of soft openings last week at the Take Cover Tiki Club. Those two days attracted about 150 customers and the business received a “fantastic” opening reception from the community, said Mr. Lang. That great reception continued during Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, when several business and city officials praised the opening of Take Cover. “It’s so good to see such a creative concept come to Moline,” Alvaro Macias, Moline Second Ward alderman, said during the celebration. That creative concept has been in the works for several months, said Mr. Lang. In addition to the creative drinks, Take Cover has a patio area with wooden benches and two picnic-style tables; an exterior painted in green and yellow with palm tree art; a gift area with Take Cover hats and T-shirts; and unique mood lighting inside the building. The building itself has a long, unique history. During Friday’s ceremony, Moline Centre Program Manager Kirk Marske, gave a brief history of the building at 1401 Fifth Ave.  In the 1940s, the building was a bus depot. After that, it was a used car dealership, furniture store, a Greyhound bus depot in the 1980s, and a Jimmy John’s restaurant. “Today, a new chapter starts here,” said Mr. Marske. That new chapter has been largely created by Bummer City, Inc., which also owns several other local hospitality businesses such as Armored Gardens, Analog Arcade Bar, Analog Pizza & Arcade, and Devon's Complaint Dept. “With the reception that Devon’s Complaint Dept. has had in downtown Davenport, we wanted to bring craft cocktails in a casual environment to Moline Centre,” Mr. Bush said in a news release before Friday’s ceremony. “But we didn’t want to make a carbon copy of it. It had to feel familiar, but different.” Take Cover, which has about six employees, is currently open 3:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and 3:30 p.m. to midnight on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It is closed on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays.