 
Bike4beer
Member
Username: Bike4beer
Post Number: 3
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2008 - 10:51 pm: |    |
What happened with the Tipperary Pub. Tommy sold it a while back but now it seems to be closed for good. Anyone have any news? My wife and I met at this bar back in 98. |
Ddaydave
Member
Username: Ddaydave
Post Number: 580
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2008 - 10:57 pm: | |
it closed about 6 months ago I used stop in there every few weeks.
I think they got some bad management the manager that ran it into the ground also was managing the halligan bar and Sherry's on Vernor when they also folded |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 300
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2008 - 11:03 pm: | |
That's a shame. I loved the Tipperary. I remember watching a Leon Spinks/Muhammed Ali fight there. Spinks won. Funny memory of an Irish Pub. All the St. Patty's Days there are just a blur. |
Bike4beer
Member
Username: Bike4beer
Post Number: 4
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2008 - 11:13 pm: | |
Thanks for the info. It is a shame. The location was never really great but they had the best pint in town.
The last time I was there was in January I think. I used to be a "regular" back over 10 years ago. |
Daddeeo
Member
Username: Daddeeo
Post Number: 184
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 12:29 pm: | |
Didn't they have a few high profile shootings in the area around the bar during the last year?
They were around Southfield and Joy (W. Chicago) right? |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 305
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 2:17 pm: | |
There's been shootings, high profile and otherwise in that area for many years. What's new? Detroiters, as a rule of thumb, ignore most of that and just go on and live their lives. I've lived and hung out in areas where I saw and heard shootings, and it had little effect on me day to day. Not that I'm saying I enjoyed it. What can you do? |
Jimb
Member
Username: Jimb
Post Number: 11
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 2:22 pm: | |
Spent a few St. Patricks days there over the years. Right down the street from Metro Music, if I remember right, which may still be open. I still remember talking to a girl there on St.Patricks Day one time. I was looking at the map of Ireland they had that showed last names and the areas they were from. I told her my last name, she informed me that I was English and not Irish. Too bad my grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, etc., couldn't have been there. I'm sure they would have found that amusing (or maybe not!). |
Bearinabox
Member
Username: Bearinabox
Post Number: 929
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 2:42 pm: | |
quote:Detroiters, as a rule of thumb, ignore most of that and just go on and live their lives. Yeah, but how many Tipperary patrons were actually Detroiters? And how many suburbanites just take news of a shooting in stride and continue spending time in the area in question, especially if said area is in a relatively rough part of Detroit? |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1955
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 3:38 pm: | |
I can recall being a young teen and having to walk over to the Tip to pick up my parents and their buddies who were too drunk to drive home. You would be surprised at how many folks who would hang out at the Tip were from the neighborhood. Don't go by assumptions that just because people are white, old, and clean cut that they don't live in rough neighborhoods because many do. |
Bearinabox
Member
Username: Bearinabox
Post Number: 932
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 3:48 pm: | |
quote:Don't go by assumptions that just because people are white, old, and clean cut that they don't live in rough neighborhoods because many do. That is definitely true, I've noticed that as well. I didn't mean to come off as though I knew why the place closed, I was just speculating and throwing stuff out there. If the patrons were mostly from the neighborhood, then I don't know why shootings in the area would have had any effect at all, because going to the Tipperary Pub wouldn't seem to put them in any more danger than anything else they might do. |
Evelethcdenver
Member
Username: Evelethcdenver
Post Number: 124
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 7:03 pm: | |
Had many beers there growing up in Rosedale. Passed by a few weeks ago while in town for the Lions/Packers game. Sad to see her just sitting there falling apart. |
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 426
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 7:14 pm: | |
When you went to The Tipp, you drank, got drunk (to varying degrees), and had a good time. Nowadays, the safe bet is to go to the local sports lounge and sing karaoke. Sucks. |
Bike4beer
Member
Username: Bike4beer
Post Number: 5
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008 - 7:36 pm: | |
I know that there had been a shooting/killing on St. Patricks day years ago. I am not sure if that case was ever solved either. As for not going somewhere there has been shootings. I generally don't worry about it. The number of shootings that are random my guess is probably pretty low.
To get back to the original topic though. I hope the Tip reopens. I have many great but blurry memories of that place. Singing along with Terry and doing shots of Jameson's with the bartenders. I hope that it is secured well enough that the interior doesn't get looted. It wasn't the nicest place but it sure did have character. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 634
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 1:10 am: | |
The Tipp was one other pub that i never ended up at, Sherrys on Vernor was alright when i went there a few times back when it was switching over from JB,s. I should start going to my corner bar so it will be there when i need it. |
Dieseldog
Member
Username: Dieseldog
Post Number: 5
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 11:25 am: | |
The last few times I went the place was empty. Seriously just me and the bartender. Halligans on the other hand always had customers not real sure why the owners sold Halligans but the change was clearly visible. All of the fire dept decor is gone except for an old hydrant by the stage and a dozen vintage battalion badges.
On a side note... Am I alone in thinking bars should have a bicycle rack outside? |
1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 310
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 12:30 pm: | |
DDog, every bar should have a bike rack. Inside or out, they should provide a safe and secure place to park bicycles. |
Pgn421
Member
Username: Pgn421
Post Number: 870
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 12:53 pm: | |
I Know where the Tip is. But, where is Halligans? |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 635
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 3:14 am: | |
Isn,t Halligans the old Wine Cask on Warren&West Parkway?. That place always seemed busy when i drove by. |
Gnome
Member
Username: Gnome
Post Number: 1973
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 9:32 am: | |
I think the guy who was killed outside the Tip was named Mike. He was connectted to the owner ... relative of some sort. Nephew? Step-son?
Mike was shot right in front of the bar; inside was packed but no one heard anything; Mike struggled to get back inside and dragged himself toward the door before he died. Blood was all over the sidewalk and froze into a reddish black unwelcome mat.
When the cops showed up they locked down the bar and everyone inside. So you can imagine the scene. You are having a good time, when a bar favorite is killed, that's bad enough; but now the cops want to interview everyone. Lights come on and now you're drunk and bummed and since the place is packed you don't get out of there until the 9 in the morning.
Needless to say, the whole event cast a pall over the place. The regulars who were inside didn't want to be reminded of what happened and when regulars don't show, no one else does too.
Last time I was there, they had the parking lot wired with cameras and the patrons were sitting at the bar watching the parking lot on closed-curcuit tv instead of the tiger's game.
A murder can kill a lot more than just a single person. |
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 429
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 10:37 am: | |
Wow, that is one amazing story. I'd heard thru the g-vine about a killing, and was also told that the actual reason it closed up was because the sister(s) simply couldn't pay the bills. So, the two story's combined make sense. Other contributing factors to the Tipps demise, I think, was the condition of the surrounding roads, and of the non-stop construction that was going on for about 3 years running it seemed. Being located about half a mile either way of the Southfield Fwy entrance and exit ramps, it was really a pain in the arse to get in and out. And after having a few drinks, I prefer to turn things over to my auto-pilot and not have to do so much "navigation". As for Halligan's, yeah, West Parkway sounds correct. Been in there a couple times, and they too had a pretty sweet jukebox selection. Whoops, I'm thinking of a different thread. The Fireman's theme was really cool, as were the patrons and staff, I did not know that Halligan's changed. Anyways, it's almost sinful for a neighborhood Irish Pub to go under. Darn. |
Ronaldj
Member
Username: Ronaldj
Post Number: 49
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008 - 8:50 am: | |
The Tipperary Pub was my place to go at the end of the afternoon shift at the Livonia Transmission Plant.
Also, took my future wife there on our first date when a birthday party on Marlborourgh location was changed.
Too much driving. Got married. |
Emuaaron
Member
Username: Emuaaron
Post Number: 40
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008 - 10:47 am: | |
Here's what i know about what happened to the Tipperary. I'm sure the violence described above played a large part as well:
Tommy sold in the late 90's/early 2000's. He sold it to a woman who was an accountant, and did not have much, if any, bar experience. The bar struggled for awhile, and it lost a lot of the regular crowd, both locals and fire/police.
The woman's husband started helping, and apparently he had some bar experience, and that helped the place get back on its feet. However, they had some problems, so when the husband left the picture, the bar once again floundered. |
Pgn421
Member
Username: Pgn421
Post Number: 875
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008 - 3:28 pm: | |
where is west parkway? Is Halligans still open? |
Evelyn
Member
Username: Evelyn
Post Number: 347
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008 - 4:08 pm: | |
Drank my first Guinness there... haven't been to it in years. Too bad it closed, though. |
Jimb
Member
Username: Jimb
Post Number: 15
Registered: 09-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 - 6:55 pm: | |
I'd swear I posted this yesterday - West Parkway is east of Telegraph, a few blocks from Outer Drive. Halligans was open as of a couple of years ago. I play in a band, and we thought we might get a gig there back then, never happened. There was also a bar at the corner of Joy and West Parkway, called the ParkJoy I think. It may still be there. My ex-girlfriend used to work there, til they got held up, I believe in the early 90s. I had gone there a couple of times back in those days, long before I met her. A friend lived just down the street on W Parkway, near Tireman. I remember the ParkJoy having one of those really old shuffleboard tables, or whatever the name is of that game with the little discs you shove across the board. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 640
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 4:34 am: | |
On Oct 4 i drove by Halligans, they looked liked they were open. Would have noticed if they were open if this thread had been out before then. |
Jtw
Member
Username: Jtw
Post Number: 228
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 8:54 am: | |
went past it yesterday. 20 or 25 years ago it was my parents' neighborhood irish bar when i was growing up on Longacre street.
i liked the place; the music was always fun on the weekends, and it was one of few places you could reliably get a pickled egg out of the big jar.
i hope it can reopen. |
Emuaaron
Member
Username: Emuaaron
Post Number: 41
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 9:32 am: | |
The Park Joy is still around, and the shuffleboard table is still there. It's a great neighborhood bar. |
Gdub
Member
Username: Gdub
Post Number: 1194
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 11:18 am: | |
Major bummer. I used to go there with my family when I was younger, then as an adult occasionally. My grandfather and uncles had their pictures up on the wall for years.
I heard a few years ago fron someone who walked in one evening and it was just a few old guys at the bar, and the four guys from U2 in a booth. Apparently they would stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn when they came to town, and the Tip became their pub. |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1961
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 11:48 am: | |
The Tip was also a favorite drinking spot for the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart when they were in town. When they were up there, word would spread like wildfire around the neighborhood and you could never get in. |
Professorscott
Member
Username: Professorscott
Post Number: 1666
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 3:36 pm: | |
The Prof has tipped many a drink at the Tip back when Tommy and Mrs. O'Halloran held court there. I knew some of the other regulars as well. It was a destination bar; I never lived in that neighborhood and neither did many of my fellow revelers.
Some of Tommy's regulars were getting on in years (as is Tommy; Mrs. O died a while back) and that probably cut into his business; a lot of younger pub crawlers would have no reason to be in the Southfield/Joy area so never would have discovered the place. A real shame he had to let it go, and that the new owner couldn't make a run of it. But a bar across an expressway from an abandoned and demolished housing project has one strike against it from the get-go. |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1962
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 4:24 pm: | |
For a while there my family was in there every Christmas Eve as a place to hold-up for a while between Wigallia and Midnight mass. After a few pops we would be out caroling. Yes the neighbors thought we were nuts. |
Ordinary
Member
Username: Ordinary
Post Number: 286
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 8:01 pm: | |
I'm sad to hear it's closed. I drive by there often and always told myself I was going to stop in there and have a bump. |
Kryptonite
Member
Username: Kryptonite
Post Number: 22
Registered: 11-2008
| | Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 9:57 am: | |
Last night I drove past the Tip hoping that maybe it would be open. The last time I drove there was I think Sept. and it was closed. Last night it was dark there, no doubt the closure is likely permanent unless someone re-opens it in the future, who knows. Sad, I enjoyed stopping by the Tipperary a few times a year. The Tipperary was always a good place to stop on your way home from the Friday fish frys at Chick's. |
Dbc
Member
Username: Dbc
Post Number: 179
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 11:38 pm: | |
That absolutely sucks about the Tip. I was actually going to stop by a few weeks ago but my wet blanket wife said no.
Anyway, O'Hallaran's was the first American bar I ever drank in, and I have many fond memories of the place. My buddies and I used to go there in the early 90's on the way home to Canton after an evening downtown, as they didn't card and we weren't yet 21. (The same Irish waitress would sometimes ask us, sarcastically, "You boys are of age, aren't ye?")
Yes, I know we may have been underage suburbanites, but we always felt welcome, and Guinness at O'Hallaran's beat the hell out of Windsor. It really was the perfect place to just have some beers and relax; a real neighborhood bar. Say what you want, but it's places like O'Hallaran's that have always brought me into the city because you can't find anything like that in god-awful Canton to save your freakin' life.
I also loved the two bearded Irish guys who would play music in the back. For shots of Jameson, they even played a Bobby Vinton polka - giving their best attempts at Polish - for me on a few occasions.
I can only hope the place reopens. |
Eastsideal
Member
Username: Eastsideal
Post Number: 88
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 5:01 am: | |
Really sad. A place where I spent a lot of my misspent youth and not-so-youth back in the 70s and 80s. Lots of memories there - some of them a little hazy. |