photograph by chris mccoy
The Cove’s distinctive “nautical” decor originally graced the old Anderton’s seafood restaurant on Madison.
Slip into the front door of the green-tiled, glass-bricked storefront on Broad Avenue and suddenly, you’re on a pirate ship. The bar at The Cove is decked with masts, a flirty female figurehead, and paintings of eye-patched pirates. The jukebox is filled, not with sea shanties, but with Memphis classics, and the bands who play in the small performance space have a decidedly more modern bent.
The eccentric decor once resided in Anderton’s, explains Michael Kuntzman II, as he cuts fruit behind the bar. The seafood restaurant on Madison was a Midtown landmark. When it closed and the building was torn down, Cove owner Mary Tanner rescued the nautical trimmings.
photograph by chris mccoy
Michael Kuntzman II
Kuntzman is a native Memphian who spent much of his childhood in North Mississippi. He got his first taste of the restaurant industry at Bonne Terre in Nesbit, Mississippi. When he applied, “I said I had more experience and was better than I was, so they made me a server. I had to figure it out really quick,” he says, adding, “I’ve been hired and fired at a lot of nice restaurants.”
After a brief stint in the kitchen at South of Beale, Kuntzman heard about the opening at The Cove. “I started out making pizzas and doing oysters, and now Mary lets me run the whole place, pretty much. I’ve taken to bartending like a duck to water. There’s something about it. My dad was a mechanic. Watching him tinker with stuff made me really good at tinkering, only with liquids and food. I love every aspect of it. Our demographic is more between 30 and 50 instead of the 21 to 35 that you get at some of the younger spots. And that allows me to be more relaxed.”
On a recent afternoon, Tanner walks into the bar to see how preparations for the night are going. Trailing her are two dogs, Zana and Dixie. Kuntzman has the bar looking ship-shape.
“He’s my work son,” she says.
“Yeah, because it takes a lot of work on her part,” Kuntzman laughs. “People don’t understand how much she does for this area. When Mary bought this place, it was just Broadway Pizza and us,” says Kuntzman. “And now this whole street’s developing.”
The Cove was on the first wave of the craft cocktail movement in Memphis. Kuntzman says he learned mixology behind the ship bar. “I had good teachers,” he says, citing local influences like David Parks, Jeff Hicks, and others.
photograph by chris mccoy
The “Midnight Manhattan," served with a twist of lemon.
Befitting the vintage vibe of The Cove, Kuntzman says his taste in cocktails tends toward the classics. “It’s the Manhattan, the Sazerac, some of those old Prohibition-era classics,” he says. “I have my own versions, but I made sure to learn those. The stuff that’s been around for 70 to 100 years — it’s been battle-hardened. Those are my favorite drinks.”
Legend has it that the Manhattan was invented around 1870 at the Manhattan Club, a New York social club founded by the son of Martin Van Buren. Incidentally, one of the earliest recipes for a similar drink — bourbon, vermouth, and bitters, topped with a cherry — was a mixture called the “Tennessee Cocktail.”
Kuntzman mixes me a variation on the classic cocktail he calls the “Midnight Manhattan,” featuring Sazerac Rye, antique vermouth, Angostura bitters, and a bit of amaro (an herbal liqueur that adds smoothness and depth).
He finishes the drink with a lemon twist instead of the more conventional cherry — and stirs the cocktail instead of shaking. “When you’re making a stirred drink, you might want to take your time — 30 seconds, even a minute. You want to dilute it, so you don’t want to rush this step.”
When he’s not helming The Cove, Kuntzman can be found behind the wheels of steel. “My biggest hobby is DJing house and techno music,” he says. He is a frequent collaborator with Larry Heard, aka Mr. Fingers, the legendary electronic musician whose 1986 single “Can You Feel It” is considered a landmark in American electronic music.
“I work for his label, but I’m kind of getting out of the party and the DJ aspect of it, to just produce and work on records,” he says. “It’s fun, but I’m almost 40. I just want to run this bar and be married.”
Last year, Kuntzman took care of the married part when he got hitched to longtime girlfriend Caitlin Robinson. When they honeymooned in Japan, “I’d see 70- and 80-year-old people, running a little food spot, their yakitori, their sushi bars, and I’m thinking to myself, it takes dedication to do that forever. I want to be like those people I saw in Japan and be the old guy still working at the same bar. I want this to be the first place I ever bartend, and the last.”
The Cove, 2559 Broad Ave.
