very interesting - had wondered! thanks!
Comment by Amyon 08/15/08 at 10:16 AM
There Is No Tip Top Tap
By Mike Maddaloni on Friday, August 15, 2008 at 06:00 AM with 7 comments
High atop the Allerton Hotel on Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue, is the sign shown in the accompanying picture. It features the name of the hotel, as well as the name, “Tip Top Tap.” Where one would think there is actually a bar or lounge called Tip Top Tap inside the hotel, there is not. There once was, and for historical reasons the sign cannot change on the building. This article in the Chicago Tribune on the recent renovation of the hotel tells more of its story.
Granted, the name Tip Top Tap does not sound contemporary by any modern standard. However, when there is a sign on both sides of your building, visible to millions each year, would you want to leverage this or simply ignore it? When the hotel was renovated, the space where the bar used to be was made into meeting space, and now there is a contemporary lounge on the second floor which, according to the hotel’s Web site, does not have a formal name.
This is not the only example of old names on buildings in Chicago. The former Marshall Field’s State Street store still carries its large name plaques even though it has been Macy’s for the past few years. Many banks dot the streets of the city with the names of their predecessor banks etched in stone and a plastic illuminated sign shows the current name. Though in today’s business mergerpalooza environment, there is probably little confusion as to what bank is what, and Macy’s still receives so much negative press in the Windy City that people know what really is on State Street.
I wonder how many people go into the Allerton Hotel looking for the Tip Top Tap? Count me as one, as my wife and I went in as she recalled her uncle’s stories of having cocktails at the bar many years back. Maybe if enough people go there asking for it management may consider returning the name? There is no shortage of brand and advertising people within a few blocks of the hotel to make it happen either.
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Comments
Comment by Amyon 08/15/08 at 10:16 AM
Huh. I always assumed TIP TOP TAP was just some silly tagline for the hotel.
Comment by The Milwaukee Road named their bar cars “Tip Top Tap” in the 40s, 50s & 60s. It’s most likely because the railroad execs from the downtown Chicago office hung out there.
Comment by Bxon 02/21/09 at 05:28 PM
Attended Army Counterintelligence School for about a month in Dec 1942-43. It was held in the Chicago Womans Club. Food was awful, so we ate out nearly every night. Would hit the bars near the Loop, and often the Tip Top Tap. Delightful place. Like a large club lounge with overstuffed chairs, cocktail tables, and great views. Located on top floor, or nearly so. Shame it closed.
Comment by hendricks alfordon 06/15/11 at 12:59 AM
@Hendricks - Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds like the Tip Top Tap was quite the destination!
mp/m
Comment by Well there goes one more item off the bucket list. Always wanted to check out the Tip Top Tap. My grand mother had a rooming house at 17 W. Chicago Ave from the late 40’s to the late 60’s. There wasn’t much to see of interest from the back yard with it’s high cement walls except Holy Name and the flashing Tip Top Tap sign. The Allerton was one of the tallest buildings in view. Always invisioned the digs as a sort of time warp patronized by contemporarys of Lamon Cranson. Oh well.
Comment by John Meadeon 12/15/11 at 11:19 AM
@John - Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. And as for your grandmother’s rooming house… I am sorry to say that is now a parking lot. :(
mp/m
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