Late Rider opens in downtown Moline

City of Moline leaders and representatives of Bummer City, the company behind Armored Gardens, Devon’s Complaint Department, Take Cover Tiki Club, and Analog, were on hand for the company’s rebranded and newest hot spot, Late Rider at 1405 5th Ave., in Moline, for a ribbon cutting and formal opening Friday, May 9.  Moline Mayor Sangeetha […]

City of Moline leaders and representatives of Bummer City, the company behind Armored Gardens, Devon’s Complaint Department, Take Cover Tiki Club, and Analog, were on hand for the company’s rebranded and newest hot spot, Late Rider at 1405 5th Ave., in Moline, for a ribbon cutting and formal opening Friday, May 9.  Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati said it was exciting to see the new changes in the downtown area, and exciting to see what Bummer City would come up with next to keep the area interesting and vibrant.  The location was formerly known as Analog II, which featured 50 arcade and pinball games on two floors, a full bar with 20 drafts and an option for parties and events. It has a sister location in Davenport, also called Analog, which will be closing Sept. 29 when its lease runs out.  Dan Bush, founder at Bummer City, thanked the city for helping them get the new bar turned around in such a short time. He also thanked their lending partner, Blackhawk Bank and Trust.  “You’ve been with us since the beginning and you continue to trust us and believe in the process and support us, and we’re really thankful for that,” Mr. Bush said.  The country and western themed bar had a soft opening last week, but officially opened Friday night. 

Take Cover Tiki Club, located next door to Late Rider in Moline, opened last October. A craft cocktail bar, it was developed by operating partners Mr. Bush and Matt Lang. It has a 3,000- square-foot patio.  “It’s always good to have (a soft opening) to get everyone up to speed and work through how everything is going to work,” Mr. Bush said. “We had just 30 days to turnover for the buildout. Operationally we weren’t sure how it was going to run every day, and so we've been figuring it out the last week or so, and we're pretty happy we're at right now. and we're just looking forward to getting it going  officially here this weekend. 
Pretty exciting time.”  “Typically a buildout like this would probably have four to six months to plan it out and then probably four to six months to execute.” Mr. Bush said. “When we did the original Analog, and when we did this Analog, we had I think about five to six months with both, and it was arduous then. We had the advantage here of having everything laid out, all the plumbing, all the electric and the plumbing  was already done. 
It was just a giant refresh, but that's not a little task in itself, so.”  Kirk Marske, Moline Centre program manager for Renew Moline,  noted the location formerly housed the Carlson Brothers book, toy, and office supply store and was built in 1922. It became a series of pizza restaurants and bars in the 1990s, becoming Analog in 2018.  “I think this is what this place was meant to be, you know, and this is something we wanted to do for quite some time,” Mr. Bush said. “
We wanted to do it before the pandemic. And we talked about it in 2019. We actually looked at a few locations, and then COVID happened and I kind of put that on the shelf and as a company, we kind of felt like this was the right move for us at this point.”