For decades, Huntsville’s Tip Top Café was more than a bar—it was a proving ground for bands and a cultural anchor for a town sometimes known better for rockets than rock & roll. After sitting dark and condemned for years, the legendary venue is alive again, with co-owners John Chamness and Evan Billiter determined to honor its past while securing its future.
From Family Café to Music Landmark
Tip Top began in the late 1940’s, started by the Church family and known as Church’s Tip Top Café. It was a classic family joint but its identity shifted in the 1980’s when Lance Church took over and tried to solve a simple problem: slow dinners.
(Tip Top Cafe/Facebook)
“He had a great lunch crowd but a terrible dinner crowd,” Chamness shares. In an effort to improve his numbers, he thought ‘What if I had live music?’” What started as a one-band experiment turned into a full-blown music pipeline. “Back then, there weren’t too many places (in the area) to play,” Chamness explains. “So the word got around: if you have a band, Lance will have you. It wasn’t a country bar, it wasn’t a funk bar. It was a if-you-have-a-band–you-can-come- play-here bar.”
A sound engineer who worked at the Tip Top in the 1990’s compiled a list of every artist who ever stepped on to the low stage. Today, that list is printed and glued to the wall of he revived cafe, surrounded by old flyers, t-shirts and other ephemera. Chamness beams as he shares, “There’s two Rock& Roll Hall of Fame members on that list: Leon Russell and Bo Diddley.” Other notables include The Black Crowes, Collective Soul, the Goo Goo Dolls and the ever-touring Widespread Panic. Chamness adds, “It’s just this unbelievable snapshot of who has come through Huntsville.”…