Kelleher's Irish Pub & Eatery

The Salty Sam fundraiser last week gave us good occasion to visit Kellher's Irish Pub & Eatery once again.
Phil Luciano's column in the Journal Star brought to light the fact that the popular actor from the local Captain Jinks Show, George Baseleon, is buried in Peoria's Springdale Cemetery sans headstone.
The show aired from 1956-1972, a bit before my time, but apparently had scores of fans, including my husband, StfRon.
A fundraiser was organized to help raise money for a more appropriate burial, with the extra funds going to St. Jude (the last tally we heard before leaving was that $2,600 had been raised).
Kelleher's, 619 SW Water Street in Peoria, hosted the event Thursday, August 28, complete with several characters dressed Salty style, sporting caps and mustaches. Owner Pat Sullivan was one of them.
I've always loved the atmosphere at Kelleher's, with the exposed brick walls and worn wood floors in the old warehouse building. There's even a balcony with upstairs seating, and the back bar is beautiful. Add to all of this a nice brick patio with seating, and the site is a real winner in my book.
There is also a good amount of neat memorabilia scattered throughout the building.
Hanging around watching the Salty Sam hi jinx, we decided to order some appetizers. We settled on an order of Irish chips and some wings, half with Beamish BBQ and half with hot sauce. A few of the other appetizers caught my eye, too, like the Galway Bay crab cakes and the crab crunchers, but despite being a fan of Captain Jinx and the USS Albatross, StfRon is no fan of seafood.
The Irish chips were potato wedges, most likely from frozen, nicely crisped on the outside, topped with some cheese sauce and crumb style bacon bits. The cheese sauce was much tastier than I thought it would be at first glance.
Normally when it comes to wings, I stick to the hot or mild variety, as I haven't found a BBQ wing I like thus far. However, upon sampling these wings doused in Beamish BBQ sauce, I now have an acceptable BBQ wing option, one I will probably even crave from time to time. The sauce hit just the right note with me, smoky, sweet and savory.
With all of the hubbub, we found the service to be good. We were seated at the bar, and our bartender was wearing a Salty Sam cap. He was cheerful and on the ball throughout our stay.