by Bob Wolff

      The Tip Top Café, a focal point for the LGBT community in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, as of press time is closing under financial stress.
      The café, the creation of John Quimby, opened in January 2002, serving food, poetry and music in White River Junction. It helped to make the newly renovated/restored Tip Top Building, an expansive turn-of-the-20th-century bread baking facility, the centerpiece of the ongoing White River Junction renewal. The music, poetry, parties and art exhibits presented at Tip Top Café made it one of the important social centers of the area.
      The café's patrons were surprised on November 7, when they received an e-mail announcing his intention to close the restaurant after dinner on Friday, November 21. Quimby wrote, "I have recently had to make the difficult decision to close the Tip Top Café. Difficult because the café has become an amazing place with a wonderful staff, great food and lots of very happy patrons." But the restaurant is "...just not cutting it financially."
      Quimby's email explained, "I have of course considered many, many alternative approaches, but all in the end seem unworkable, or, untenable. I refuse to lessen the quality of the ingredients we cook with, or to 'dumb down' the menu to appeal to a broader, blander public taste, or to purchase pre-prepared entrees to cut down on staff costs."
      Quimby thanked his patrons for their "tremendous support" and said, "It is sort of like the closing of a long running theatrical performance... there will be tears, but no regrets." Contacted at his office, Tip Top Building developer/manager Matt Bucy said that John had done a fantastic job of creating a restaurant at Tip Top, that he hoped that Quimby would find a way to continue, and, if not, that there would be a café or restaurant at Tip Top again.
      Although the Tip Top Café will be closed by the time OITM hits the streets, one of its favorite activities - Poetry Night - will continue at the Tip Top Building. Matte and Michael of the Cooler Gallery (also in the Tip Top Building) will host "Poetry Night at the Tip Top" in their 2nd floor gallery at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month. Organizers say that those attending may read new or old work, or the work of a favorite poet, or whatever!
      At press time, a week before the scheduled closing, there was a ray of hope that the restaurant would continue. Quimby said that since he made the closing announcement he has had several offers of help that he is "processing."