Nate Manzo's Dining Room to the Comfort Zone

By John Berry

There was a business that existed in the late 1940s (and maybe other businesses before) referred to as Manzo's Cocktail Bar. It was owned by Nate Manzo, who was born in 1898 and appears to have lived until 1968 from what I can tell. It was located at 17321 W. 6 Mile, or 17321 W. McNichols. A muffler location sat there recently. I don't know what Manzo's looked like in it's prime, but I bet it had a patio. From news accounts, it hosted a number of speeches and meetings for important people in town and meetings of businesspeople and other groups.

From the ad above, it appears that Manzo's Cocktail Bar entertained by using a Novachord, a relatively rare instrument made from 1939 - 1942. It appears that the Novachord is often considered to be the world's first commercial polyphonic synthesizer and only 200 or so were made. 

It appears that the Cocktail Bar eventually gave way to an Italian restaurant called Nate Manzo’s Dining Room as of May 1955.  It later served as the Apollo Cocktail Room in 1968 (apparently brief and would coincide with the passing of the owner). In 1972, the location was known as Jimi-Jons Lounge. A business known as L-Tech held the location from around 1992-1993. In 1997 through the early 2000s the location served as a jazz and music club called the Comfort Zone where a number of musicians played. 

Now, the location is an auto repair business, Best Hand Mufflers/Auto Repair but the property appears to be in the process of being sold according to realtor information on the Internet.