The first bar I was ever served at was the Tip Top Inn on Sheridan Road. I was a junior in high school armed with my brother Tom’s draft card. I had braces, pimples, a baby face but I knew enough to lay a twenty dollar bill on top of the bar. I showed bartender Phil the draft card and he looked closer at the twenty dollar bill and after I assured him I was indeed 21-years-old, he served me my first beer in a tavern.
After that I became a regular. When I turned 19-years-old, I could finally legally drink in a bar. By this time I had become a regular at the Tip Top and we were celebrating my birthday at the end of the bar. Phil the bartender came down and asked me what the celebration was about and I showed him my real I.D. and said to him, “I can finally legally drink in here!”
He called me a son of a bitch, then laughed and gave me a bottle of Budweiser on the house!
Mark “Whitey” White bought the bar in 1992 and it became “Whitey’s Tip Top Inn.”
These days, It’s mainly open in the daytime and on Tuesday we were supposed to be pelted with horrific thunderstorms and possibly a tornado in the evening, so I figured it would be the perfect afternoon to add Whitey’s Tip Top to our 365 bar tour and so it’s off we go!
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Bar Number 60: Whitey’s Tip Top Inn, Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Here we are at Whitey’s Tip Top Inn on Sheridan Road. This tavern has been standing tall here on Sheridan Road as long as I can remember!
There’s the front door, but if you walk in this door, you look like a real amateur in here.
If you know what you’re doing, you walk down the sidewalk and enter in the open side door with the Busch sign hanging over it.
There it is and it never changes, the bar at Whitey’s Tip Top Inn!
And here’s the man himself, Whitey, serving up a bottle of Budweiser.
I remember drinking beers way back when Whitey was on the other side of the bar and it was just called the Tip Top Inn.
Whitey bought the place back in 1992 and good for him for keeping this classic bar alive! Great to see him as always!
There’s the back of the bar and the classic mirror that lines the back wall.
Here’s the two wooden islands in the middle of the bar.
Gaming machines now line the side wall in here.
There’s round tables in the back of the bar that have always been here.
It always feels like stepping back in time when you walk in here and that’s a good feeling.
Cheers to Whitey’s Tip Top Inn, a classic Peoria bar!
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My Drink
I just had one bottle of Budweiser. I limited it to one because it was early in the day and I had things to do before the storms came barreling in to town!
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2601 N. Sheridan Road
Peoria
309-688-2050
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Bar List, Rules, Banner Art & Donation Link.
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