New York on Tap 2008
Archive · modern edition Every bar New York on Tap knew, as it stood around 2008, with a 2026 check on each one. This page in the 2008 edition

No photo of this bar survives from the 2008 site.

A New York on Tap pick

Tip Top Bar & Grill

432 Franklin Ave.
Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

In 2026

Still pouring

Checked October 16, 2026.

Show on the map Directions See the 2008 page

Overview

This gritty former after-hours bar in a townhouse basement still resides behind a locked gate. Just catch someone's eye and hope for the best.

History

The club that opened its gate, a little

Walter "Junior" Alston opened Tip Top as a social club for men in the neighborhood, and bought its building in the 1970s1. In 2001, when the city threatened to shut the club down, Walter and his wife Irene, known to relatives and regulars as Corinne, turned it into an official bar1. Even so, we found it still behind a locked gate in a townhouse basement, where the trick was to catch someone's eye and hope for the best.

Sources

  1. nooklyn.com

Researched October 2026.

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