Bars & clubs / Livernois / University District (blocks from the University of Detroit)
The Chessmate
Closed – archive entry
A former coffeehouse and music venue on Livernois near Six Mile Road (from 1963), one of Detroit's key folk rooms and later a gay after-hours club.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
The Chessmate began as a coffeehouse for chess players; owner Morrie Widenbaum, the 1963 Michigan chess champion, started booking live music in 1963, and it became one of Detroit's key folk rooms, where Joni and Chuck Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Rush and a young Neil Young played. By 1968 it had moved on to rock and electric blues for an after-bar crowd. In the 1970s the space became a private gay after-hours club where Duane Bradley, Ken Collier and other DJs were among the first in Detroit to mix records; DJ Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale saw Bradley mixing there in 1975.
- Folk stage for a young Neil Young
- Rock and electric blues from 1968
- Early DJ mixing in the 1970s
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Joni Mitchell born 1943 · singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter
Performed here
Folk coffeehouse on Livernois Avenue near Six Mile Road where the Mitchells played regularly.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
Events at this place
Published events automatically linked from our event guide. Times are local to the venue.
We have no published upcoming events linked to this place yet. That does not mean the venue has no events; check its official calendar too.
Source and former website ↗