Knockouts Bar and Grill is a contender
By Bill Beene Of the St. Louis American
When Kevin Cunningham started the Hyde Park Boxing Club in 1995, he was trying his hand at knocking out youth violence and hopelessness.
There he led a neighborhood kid named Cory Spinks out of the ‘hood to the world boxing stage, where they grabbed three pro belts. Another kid, Devin Alexander, also has become a top prospect in the boxing game.
Now Cunningham has invested some of his corner-winnings in a new contender: Knockouts Bar and Grill, 13141 New Halls Ferry Rd. just west of Parker Rd.
And he’s still taking a swing at helping his fellow man.
“I want to continue helping others – I did it with boxing and now I’m going to do it with jobs,” said the former boxer turned trainer/manager/promoter.
At 6,400 sq. ft., Knockouts Bar and Grill employs 18 people and looks to advance within the next few months.
A majority of the employees are servers and cocktail waitresses called the Knockouts Girls. While they’re all attractive women who sport boxing-like shorts and tennis shoes, looking good every shift is only a round of their fight.
Cunningham insists on running a first-rate joint.
“I believe in doing things first-class and the right way,” Cunningham said in an exclusive interview with the American.
“It ain’t easy, but that’s how I like it: If I can’t go first-class, I don’t want to go,” he said.
To help him champion his fundamental business philosophy, Cunningham tapped veteran restaurant and bar manager Lawanda Stith, BKA, L.A.
“She’s the real deal – she’s knows this biz,” Cunningham said.
Stith could be seen giving pointers to the Knockouts Girls and creating a combination of systems to make service flow like clockwork during a soft opening last Friday.
“I’m learning a lot from her: she taught me how to multitask and do things in an orderly fashion,” said Knockouts Girl Minx, a local recording artist.
Training on Friday primed the staff in time for a grand opening set for 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10. It promises a packed house with a main event that features a World Welterweight Title Fight between “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Miguel “Junito” Cotto.
The fight goes down at in New York at Madison Square Garden, but Knockout Bar and Grill will have ringside viewing.
The black-and-red bedecked sports bar (a boxing motif) weighs in with 18 plasma screens and a 106-inch projection screen.
Other amenities include: a 40 ft.-plus bar, 3 pool tables, 3 electronic dart boards, a mirrored danced floor, outdoor promenade and patio, dinning area and a full kitchen and menu.
Cunningham said he wanted his sports bar to be something out of the norm.
He said he takes pride in being the only full-scale, black-owned sports bar in St. Louis.
He said he took some pointers from sports bars in Vegas, Miami and other locales where he takes his fighters to train.
“When we go out of town, we don’t do clubs – we do sports bars and we have a better time,” Cunningham said.
“The sports bars are different, and I always wanted to bring something like that to St. Louis,” he said.
While Cunningham still has a foot in the boxing game, he said he wants to diversify.
“You can’t just do one thing, and I can do more than one thing at a time,” he said, adding, “Whatever I want to do, I’m going to find a way to do it.”
In the early ‘90s, when Cunningham returned to St. Louis after a stint in the U.S. Army, where he boxed, he found a way to help his community.
After working in the circuit clerk’s office, he became a police officer. To find a better way of fighting crime beyond just locking youngsters up, he started the Hyde Park Boxing Club.
Displaying his desire to diversify, Cunningham started the Police Athletic Association (PAL), focusing on boxing.
As a police officer, Cunningham said he witnessed how out of control many youngster were.
“My thing was you can lock them up, but that doesn’t solve the problem,” said Cunningham, who also took issue with a decline in the city’s boxing programs prior to his enlisting in the Army.
“We went from being one of the best boxing programs in ‘80s to one of the worst in the mid-‘90s,” Cunningham said.
“I came home with a lot of discipline and hard work, so I wanted to teach these guys how discipline and hard work builds character,” he said.
Those same ethics have jabbed character into Knockouts Bar and Grill.