Opened in 1966, Tipton's Cafe is located on historic Depot Street near its corner with Irish Street. The cafe serves home-cooking and caters to a late-hour crowd by opening its door at 11:00 PM and closing after lunch the next day. Its proprietors, Jim and Edna Cutshaw, have a relationship with the cafe that predates their ownership. Mr. Cutshaw frequented the Linton's Cafe as a young man. He remembers stopping in for nickel hamburgers before seeing a movie across the street at the Palace Theatre.
The family of Jim and Edna Cutshaw began
operating Tipton's Cafe in 1966. Before that, the cafe was operated by
Linton Boswell under the name of Linton's Cafe, but the building's
history stretches back much further than that. Built in 1915 by Eugene
Chamberlain, whose family still owns the building, it served as a sheet
metal shop. The tin ceiling still present in the building is original
to this period. The building was also once a barber shop. Relics from this
period also still remain in the form of the typical barber shop mirrors
lining the wall behind the bar.
This small cafe is one of the few businesses that have continued to prosper throughout the business exodus from the downtown area. From a sheet metal shop to an enduring small-town cafe, this building is steeped in the history of Greeneville.
