Today we take a visit over to the long vacant Top Hat Supper Club. Along with the Elmwood and the Metropole on Walker Road, the Top Hat hosted numerous famous performers over the years.
A few years back the Top Hat went under and closed its doors. Today, the building is used for its parking lot.
There has been talk of demolition with Burger King looking to relocate to the site, moving from its location on Goyeau by the tunnel. The move was recently defeated at city council.
So, instead of a drive through Burger King we have a trifecta of vacancy. The Armouries to the west in vacant with no plan, and the current Bus Depot to the north is scheduled to be vacant in the next month or so, leaving that stretch of University Ave. quite desolate.
Old Postcards and a bowl sit in the front window.
An old faded sign for pick-up customers.
In later years of operations, the Top Hat tried to start a sports bar called Tails, in an effort to capture new business and diversify.
Tails had its own entrance.
A wall of colourful 1960’s era glass bricks line the walls to the Tails entrance.
A Top Hat “TH” monogram set in the terrazzo floor of the Tails entrance.
With no immediate plan for the future the building remains vacant, another painful reminder that despite what the Mayor says, our downtown core is dying a very slow, and very painful death. Things will only continue to get worse as the downtown remains neglected.
It’s a shame that Top Hat went under, but a lot of its customers are either gone for good (left town/died) or moved to the suburbs. It’s hard to stop that cycle, if the jobs also move to the suburbs. Maybe a regional development plan might halt sprawl, but with the crumbling economy, it’s hard to do. Almost any growth is better than no growth in this climate.
The Top Hat building may hold a lot of memories, but is hardly an architectural gem. It’s a service building that may or may not has reached the end of it’s service life. It needs to be renewed or removed. In some cases, it’s cheaper to start over. Seeing the step up from the sidewalk to the door brings a smile to my face – hardly handicap-accessible that. It’s hard to believe, but the Americans with Disabilities Act has had a major impact in accessibility to buildings in the States. Next time you’re out, take a look at entrances on both sides of the border, and pretend you’re in a wheelchair or have problems walking.
Downtown’s not the only part of the city that’s dying a slow painful death. How about Tecumseh Road between Central and Jefferson or Wyandotte between Walker and Goyeau? We need a new mayor, a new city council and a city planning department that’s not stuck in the 1970’s.
Jeff, I agree, the structure is nothing to write home about, however the building as a performance venue is historic, but those days are gone, and not coming back.
However, I didn’t think that a Burger King was the best use for that land, and obviously neither did City Council. It just seems that this Mayor and Council despite their rose coloured glasses have allowed the core to get worse, with no improvements in sight…
amen to that, george!
It seems that its not the mayor and council that plan cities. Planners plan cities. No? Is there a master plan out there somewhere that addresses the sustainability and enlightened urban, walkable environments that are materializing in other cities ? Is our city planner working hard on something? anything? Where is the plan that sees urban renewal throughout the city. when and if the plan does emerge, is what we build today going to be architectually significant in 30 or 50 or 100 yrs? ….everything i see going up looks to be as disposable as a walmart.
It came as a surprise to me that the City of Windsor plans anything when I went to pay my parking ticket and saw signs for this, http://www.plan-itwindsor.ca/PW/
I thought it was a typo and was supposed to say “Planet Windsor” since it sometimes seems that our politicians and city planners aren’t even in the same solar system as us.
So what happened to that statue that was inside, just before the entrance to the dining room? And how many times did you almost trip on that hidden “step up” before entering same?
Not so fast on declaring the Burger King issued dead. The City agreed to look at a revised site plan, so the BK may yet replace the TH. Don’t forget, the Tunnel Plaza expansion is a fait acompli, the existing Burger King will soon be toast.
Don’t know if this was true or not, but I heard the City offered to buy the building, but the vendor was holding out for way too much for it. So, now we have to keep looking at this empty piece of crap.
I think the idea was that a downtown farmer’s market needs a lot more land than that provided by the armouries to make it work. Or, maybe it was for something else.
Then, again, a large scale outdoor farmer’s market could easily be accomodated for on the proposed urban village lands. When I lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, I used to go to the St. Jacob’s Farmer’s Market and it was an enourmous parking lot in small village that had like 500 vendors outdoors every weekend that sold pretty much everything. One could spend a day walking around there. And, it was packed with people.
Hi Andrew, I haven’t posted since the Capitol Theatre Fiasco. I hope you are well.
I loved the photos (hated the graffiti on the Top Hat, I think Mike Drakich would be out there scrubbing it off himself were he to see it…God rest his soul).
I used to work at the Top Hat and have some crazy memories of that place. My folks used to bring me there as a kid to watch the many performers that graced the stage. One of my favourites was Bill Hart and his pal Harry, Bill was a ventriloquist and was an amazing man. He and my father became fast friends and I later knew Bill Hart as Uncle Bill. He passed away many years ago followed by his lovely wife Claire.
In my early 20’s I found myself working as a waitress at the Top Hat and was fortunate enough to meet a few celebrities. The Gaylord’s were always top professionals and their shows were usually a sell out. One of the most unique guests I served was Frank Gorshin (sp?), TV’s Riddler from the Bat Man and Robin series. That man was an enigma wrapped inside a riddle.
To look at him you would physically see a very small framed, yet agile, looking man, but to see him eat you wouldn’t believe it. He ate more than I have ever seen anyone consume at one sitting anywhere. Every day at lunch he ate SEVEN large, and I mean really large mixing type bowls full of different foods, coleslaw, bean salad, pasta etc. and he eats this everyday from what I was told…. amazing to see as he cleared every bowl of every bit of food.
Not many people got to see the upstairs dressing rooms and small banquet room at the Top Hat; it had that funny magical feeling that a theatre has backstage. I will never forget my first time serving up there. I was new and had one of those big, oval, brown trays full of prime rib and lobster and steak, I must have had at least $150 worth of food on that tray. Well, I carefully balanced the tray and proceeded from the kitchen up the narrow back staircase and was doing well until I hit my head on a very low beam, fell backwards and lost every meal on that tray.
As I stood there shocked, I happened to capture Sam Drakich’s eye and could see a fury welling up…. oh dear Lord…. I thought that would be my last waitressing stint at the Top Hat.
To my surprise, Sam did not lose it with me, instead, knowing I was new and had never been up that stairwell before, he asked, or rather demanded to know who let me go up those stairs with that tray….. I was so relieved, so very relieved. I will never forget that day, I found a special fondness for Sam that I don’t know he ever knew about, but I was forever grateful to him for sparing me the wrath of the kitchen (anyone who has worked in a restaurant knows what I am referring to here). I continued to waitress for over 20 years and never, never dropped another tray again.
I hope the building can be used again for something new and exciting as it is so unusual and unique inside.
Hey if anyone wants to buy it, I would love to perform there with my entertainment company, that would complete the Top Hat circle for me. From customer to server to entertainer….hmmmmm. Anyone have a couple of million lying around that they don’t need? LOL!
I should tell you about Mike Drakich and Bette Midler someday, that’s a piece of Top Hat history that many don’t know about.
Cheers
Michelle
*~ Laughter can heal the world, pass it on! * ~
this is for Michelle who worked at the top hat… i too knew bill hart when i was small he was a friend of my dad’s and of course the whole family. i kind of remember his wife claire, but he was also married (earlier?) and his wife was accidentally shot. does anyone have more information?
Just an update on Bill Hart. His first wife was Joyce and was the real love of her life. She was a beautiful lady and a total class act. She accidentally died in a shooting accident.
The Burger King is now there, as planned.
Going to see Bobby Vinton thurs. st the cascino– Wish it was at the Top Hat
I appeared at the Top Hat for a number of years! Maybe some of you remember me … Danny Holley. My years at the Top Hat were some of the best times of my life.