Missy's Corner Café

One day this week StfRon and I decided to have lunch in Pekin. Not sure where to go, I asked my friend J. for some advice. He tossed out several suggestions, including Missy's Corner Café. He said he thought I would like it, and that they were known for their tenderloin, so we decided to check it out.
Arriving at the non-descript location at 17 N. 4th Street in Pekin during the lunch hour, I found the restaurant filled with a respectable crowd of people. We took a booth by the tall windows in the tidy main dining room, which looked to have been decorated maybe 15-20 years ago, accented with bright blue and white paint and wooden ceiling tiles.
Our waitress followed us to the booth and dropped off our menus and silverware, encased in plastic bags, and took our drink order. Another lady was back with the drinks almost immediately.
On a board along one wall, I saw the day's specials advertised as four pieces of fried chicken with two sides, chili mac with garlic toast or a fish sandwich. On our booth table, I noticed the napkin dispenser was emblazoned with an ad touting Missy's as home of the giant tenderloin, with a picture of a standard Central Illinois tenderloin in the background.
Opening the menu, I noticed the prices seemed quite reasonable. StfRon slapped his closed almost immediately. "What are you having?" I asked. "Giant tenderloin", he said. Giant. Hmm.
When the waitress arrived to take our order, StfRon asked if the Jr. tenderloin was a kids' portion. Ohhh nooo, she said, and did some gesturing to give us an idea of how big it was, saying that it would stick way out of the bun.
"I'll have that," I said, and ordered tater tots as my side. Hey, if I'm having a greasy lunch, I may as well go all the way! StfRon went with the junior tenderloin, too, and copied my tots order.
Our order did take a bit longer than your typical lunch stop to arrive, but not alarmingly long, and we're pretty sure the pounding we heard from the kitchen about five minutes before our meal arrived was our tenderloins being freshly pounded out.
And oh my, did these look good! The breading is hard to describe, but has a lot of texture to it, with lots of nooks and crannies. It looked like the most awesome chicken fried steak I had ever seen, and I almost wished for a side of sawmill gravy to top it with. The bun almost seemed like an afterthought, so I ditched it, and cut in to the tender pork. The breading was crispy and had a great flavor to it.
The photo of the tenderloin on the napkin dispenser is obviously some stock photo and does not do Missy's tenderloin justice.
These tenderloins were both accompanied with huge orders of tater tots. I ate about seven of them, and I swear there were still more than 14 left to take home, along with the other half of my tenderloin.
If I hadn't been pigging out a bit I could have made four meals out of that lunch, but as it is I will have dinner or lunch to look forward to later in the week.
Lunch for two with reasonably priced ($1.25) iced teas came to about $18 including tax.
Both ladies waiting tables in the dining room were friendly and efficient.
Another bonus for me was that they had a bucket o' hard candy at the cash register, but it was not filled with the standard red and white peppermint candies. These were butterscotch disks, one of my all-time favorites. And, to top it off, I don't think they were Brach's that have the cellophane wrappers with twisted ends. These were sealed flat at each end, and seemed to have even more butterscotchy goodness than Brach's.
We popped in to a side room on our way out, and found it filled with several electronic poker games.
Missy's Corner Café serves breakfast all day, and is open seven days a week until 2 p.m.
Next time I find myself on jury duty, I know where I'm headed for lunch!

Comfort food

I love it when I can go to a locally owned restaurant and enjoy some good comfort food.
Yesterday I found myself at Cyd's Gourmet Kitchen in Peoria's Junction City and noticed that the special was turkey pot pie. Sounded good on a chilly day, so I ordered one.
It took a bit of time to warm it up, but soon my piping hot fancy pot pie was delivered to my table in its white tureen topped with layers of golden, flaky pastry.
Digging in, I found it filled with chunks of white meat turkey, potato cubes, pearl onions, carrots, peas, lima beans and celery, all covered in a thick sauce.
Now that hit the spot!

More holiday happenings

With the weather being like it is, I guess it's not so difficult to believe that next week is Thanksgiving.

For more holiday happenings around the area, check out:

The Poinsettia Show at Luthy Botanical Gardens in Peoria Friday, November 21 and Saturday, November 22.
Hundreds of colorful poinsettias on display and Christmas trees throughout the conservatory will be decorated in themes.

Holiday Open House at the Metro Centre in Peoria on Saturday, November 22.

The Chillicothe Christmas Parade will be held Saturday, November 22 at 2 p.m.

The Illinois Antique Center in downtown Peoria will hold a holiday open house this weekend as well.

Holiday happenings

With this chilly weather, maybe you are in the mood for some holiday events. Me, I'm just sniffling, sneezing and taking in large amounts of warm drinks and soups to try and soothe my sore throat.

This weekend Junction City shopping center in Peoria will host a holiday open house on Friday, November 14 from 5-9 p.m. Events include live music, carriage rides, cocktails and snacks plus pictures with Santa (cost for photos is $5). http://www.newjunctioncity.com

Hoerr Nursery in Peoria will also be hosting holiday open house events this weekend.
Friday, November 14 from 3- 5 p.m. Buffalo Wild Wings of Grand Prairie will be selling and serving food. There will be drawings and holiday decorating demonstrations. Starting at 6 p.m. there will be live music.
Saturday the open house continues at 10 a.m. with food from Buffalo Wild Wings from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. http://www.hoerrnursery.com

On Sunday, Kickapoo Creek Winery in Kickapoo will have a Christmas showcase featuring tastings, refreshments and gift ideas from noon-6 p.m. I made my first visit to the winery a couple of weeks ago and sampled several of their wines. A couple of the reds I tried were quite nice. http://www.kickapoocreekwinery.com

Chiliworks Café

Last week we made the trek to the new Chiliworks Café, 8305 North Allen Road in Peoria.
Walking in to the restaurant in a new strip mall at about 11:30, we found ourselves right at the counter where you place your order.
After looking over the menu board on the wall, I decided to go with a regular bowl of the Cincinnati chili, billed as "one of a kind (unless you're from Ohio) ground beef chili with unique flavors of cayenne pepper, cocoa & cinnamon". I chose cornbread over French bread for my side.
StfRon ordered a chili mac, described as "pasta covered with chili, cheese and onion" with French bread.
We went to fill our drinks at the station and look for a place to sit in the crowded dining room. The walls were painted a warm red and were not adorned by any decorations. We took a seat near the stone fireplace in the center of the room.
Our food arrived shortly. My chili, topped with a bit of shredded cheddar and diced onions was not scaldingly hot, so I was able to dig in right away. I could taste the cinnamon and cocoa, which nicely complimented the tasty chili.
StfRon sampled his chili mac and found it to be too heavy on the green peppers for his taste. After trying mine, he decided to have a bowl of that instead.
The cornbread was a nice accompaniment to the bowl of chili.
The owner stopped by our table as he was visiting the dining room and asked how everything was. With only a couple of seats along the window bar open, the place was hopping.
The chili menu features original chili, an incandescent variety, turkey chili, plus there is an Austrian onion soup on the menu. There is Texas chili (with steak), cheese soup and bison chili, as well as some sandwiches, salads, pastas and desserts. In addition to a regular bowl of chili, you can order a large bowl or a bread bowl. Chiliworks also features some kid's menu selections.

January, 2009 — We recently visited Chiliworks and found that they have added some interesting art to the dining room wall, which dresses things up a bit. I also noticed that they are serving beer, and there are a few on the list that StfRon was wishing he could partake of during the lunch hour.

May, 2009 — Chiliworks has closed.

German Specialties relocation

Maria from German Specialties (formerly located at 3919 N. Sheridan Road in Peoria) had told us a couple of months ago that she may be moving the shop to the Metro Centre.
Plans must have changed because this weekend we ran across their new digs in the 3000 block of University Street, tucked in between FedEx Kinkos and Hobby Lobby. The new location looks like it will be much larger, and they should be opening soon, just in time for us to pick up some yummy Christmas stocking stuffers!

Ginger Asian Bistro

My husband, StfRon, has been raving about a place he discovered in Springfield, Ginger Asian Bistro, for a few months now. Recently I had the chance to check it out for myself.
Walking in to the restaurant located at 3100 W. White Oaks Drive, I asked what had made him decide to try the place, since it seemed a little contemporary for his taste. He said it was the promise of free WiFi on the sign that originally attracted him, but I know he's drawn back due to the soothing atmosphere and the teriyaki chicken.
Shortly after we were seated our waiter stopped by and took our drink order, which he delivered momentarily, along with some complimentary hot and sour soup. I'm not a big fan of this soup, but I must say that Ginger's version was the best I've ever tried.
Going with my husband's rave review, I ordered the teriyaki chicken while he went with the sesame chicken. The teriyaki chicken was, as he described, not too heavily seasoned or sweet, and cooked until it had a light, crispy texture, and was accompanied by a nice selection of vegetables, including carrot disks edged in a scalloped pattern.
I was intruigued by some of their cocktail offerings and the dessert menu, which included things like ginger créme brulee, green tea cheesecake and, one of my all-time favorites, green tea ice cream.
This is not your typical lunchtime Chinese fare, and our meal was not followed by a bill delivered on a tray with fortune cookies. But this certainly didn't detract from the experience, perhaps it lent a little something extra.

Punchy about lunch

Lately I've been looking for ways to save on lunches. I love going out to lunch, but it's nice to be able to save a buck or two.
This morning I went and had a free cholesterol screening at the Methodist Wellmobile, at the request of my doctor. After my consult, the nurse gave me a bag of goodies that I opened a few minutes ago.
Inside I found a lunch punch card from Carnegie's 501, 501 Main Street in Peoria. The card is a five for one lunch club: purchase five lunches and the sixth lunch is free. I'll have to check that one out. I like eating downtown, and I know Carnegie's had a nice salad bar the last time I was there for dinner.
Vallarta's, 3510 N. University Street in Peoria, has a punch card. Buy 10 lunches and your 11th is free.
The City News Café, 311 Main Street in Peoria, also has a punch card, and I'm sure there are other places I've yet to discover.
If anyone knows of locally-owned restaurants who offer lunch punch cards or special lunch deals, please comment and let me know!

TNT Sports Bar & Grill

Sunday we took another ride on the River Trail of Illinois in East Peoria, thinking the fall colors would be out in full force. Either they're not quite there yet, or they aren't going to be that stunning, but the weather was great for a ride nonetheless. Some friends of ours met us for the ride.
The trail passes right behind TNT Sports Bar & Grill, so we made plans to stop there for a bite to eat.
TNT is located at 3304 Meadows Avenue in East Peoria.
We stepped inside to find a dark (especially coming in from the noontime sun) dining room behind the bar, walls lined with wood planks. Through some window openings into the bar that were covered with Plexiglas, we could see a row of several flat screen TVs, each displaying different football games.
Along the bar wall in the room was a nicely maintained shuffleboard table.
When we took our seat, there were about three other tables of people in the dining room, but once noon hit a pretty steady stream of customers flowed into the restaurant.
We had been tossing around the idea of Bloody Marys and breakfast at the bar. Our waitress came by to take our drink order, and since I hadn't seen any sign of a breakfast menu, I asked for an iced tea. StfRon looked at me and said "What, no Bloody Mary??" Our waitress piped up and said they had a Bloody Mary bar. We were all intrigued, and three of us ordered one.
The waitress delivered three glasses of vodka on ice to our table, then escorted us to the Bloody Mary bar to give us the rundown.
There were several bottles of Bloody Mary mix, one of which is TNT's own creation, which she mentioned has won some awards. We all decided to try that one. There were seasonings like Worcestershire, celery salt, salt and pepper, and garnishes including Slim Jims, celery, green olives, pickles and green onions. There was also a pot of chili and some bowls on the Bloody Mary bar.
We loaded up our drinks and headed back to the table to enjoy our creations.
We decided to go with pizza for our lunch. StfRon and I ordered the sweetfire chicken pizza and our friends went with a deluxe. We also ordered some wings in honey BBQ (StfRon's doing) and mild for me.
TNT's pizzas are thin crust. The sauce on the sweetfire chicken pizza ended up having a pretty good kick to it. Between that, the Bloody Mary and the mild wings, my taste buds were heading toward a mild inferno. If I order that pizza again, I think I would have to cut down on the amount I ate.
StfRon enjoyed the honey BBQ wings. I don't particularly care for sweet wings, but I liked the mild ones.
Service was good, and several servers checked on us from time-to-time. I also visited the women's restroom and was fairly surprised at the decor and cleanliness. I really had prepared myself for a more low-end utilitarian restroom, but this was definitely a few steps above.
We were also pleasantly surprised when we got the bill. With the Bloody Mary bar priced at only $3, wings at 35 cents and pizzas at a few bucks off on Sundays, we made off with a bargain, and had we not been on bikes, we could have taken home some leftovers.
TNTs has daily specials and offers free WiFi.

TNT opened a second location in Peoria Heights at the former Penguin Tap in early 2009.

Garner's Pizza & Wings

This week StfRon and I tried the lunch buffet at Garner's Pizza & Wings, 9101 N. Allen Road in Peoria.
Our first stop was the cash register where we paid just under $18 for two lunch buffets (pizza and salad bar) and two drinks. Heading to the dining room, we found that all of the booths appeared to be occupied (some people were in the buffet line, but had already claimed their space). We did find room at the end of a couple of tables of eight chairs, where two men were enjoying their pizza at the other end.
I went for the pizza right away, figuring salad could wait. Hey, I like my pizza hot!
All of the selections had a thin crust. I took a piece of pepperoni pizza that had green peppers and onions on it, and a bread stick with some marinara. Sitting down to try them, I found both to be OK, but they didn't knock my socks off.
On my next trip to the buffet, I snagged a slice of BBQ chicken pizza and some salad: iceberg lettuce with red cabbage, added on some cucumbers and red onions plus some bacon bits and ladled on some Italian dressing.
Now THIS slice was more up my alley! The cheese was nicely browned, the thin crust was nicely dusted in cornmeal, the chicken was tender and not dry, and the BBQ sauce...whoa!! It tasted like Steak 'n Shake chili mac sauce, of which I am a HUGE fan.
It's a good thing that when I glanced back over at the buffet, I noticed that the BBQ chicken pizza was gone or I would have had one or two more slices.
The place kept up a steady lunch business while we were there. The dining room features a TV and there is an arcade room just down the hall.
I've had and enjoyed Garner's wings in the past, but it's been years. They also have appetizers and sandwiches on the menu, and offer delivery.

Business weather report

You might recall that we tried to visit Ken's Gourmet Chili a couple of weeks ago. There is now a for rent sign in the window at Ken's. I'm sorry to hear that because it's fairly close to where I work, and chili sounds great on a chilly afternoon.
I guess there's a new chili game in town, though, that I've been hearing advertised on the radio, somewhere on Allen Road. Chili Works, if I remember correctly.

We also noticed that Lenny's Comedy Café in Washington has closed. We had taken in a show there and found the food to be OK (we had a deep fried appetizer trio), the first comedian that night was so-so, but the second one was a blast. The location (the old Uncle Al's Steak House) seems to be sufficiently cursed.

On a bit of a different note, I hope the Bark in the Park yesterday was a big success. We were out of town for a camping trip (our second attempt ever!) but still donated to one of our favorite causes: DOGS!!
We met some cool dogs at the campground, which was nice, since we left our canoe-capsizing canine at home with Grandma R. I hear she fared pretty well, though, dining on cheese, beef jerky and peanut butter!

Sullivan's Pub

On Wednesday we stopped by Sullivan's Pub, 4614 N. Prospect Road in Peoria Heights, and found the kitchen open for business.
We took a look at the menu, which looked a lot style-wise like the menu from F. Scott's. There were even a couple of my favorite F. Scott's menu items on there: bacon wrapped artichoke hearts and the Brie du Jour. Can't wait to snack on those!
We decided to have some sandwiches at the bar, StfRon going with a cheeseburger and a sesame-crusted tuna steak on grilled toast for me. We also ordered a large order of the hand cut fries.
My sandwich arrived topped with tomato and a light wasabi sauce, not spicy at all. The tuna was thick and nicely prepared with a light garnish of seseame seeds, and I enjoyed the plate presentation, which included a colorful side of three bean salad. The bean salad was light on vinegar.
StfRon enjoyed his burger, and commented on the mixed lettuce greens for garnishing his burger.
The side of fries was tasty, but huge. Next time we'll have to split a smaller one!
I also noticed that Sullivan's is serving homemade soups, which I will be partaking of many times with the cooler weather upon us.
The menu features burgers including bison and turkey as well as beef, tuna, appetizers and soups and food is served each day starting at 4 p.m.

March, 2010 — Sullivan's has been sold and will reopen as another business.

Fall fun

Fall is my favorite time of year. This year I've already enjoyed a caramel apple from Maurie's Candies in Pekin, thanks to my husband. I could live on those all season long.
We've already had our annual fall party, which was a great time.
I'm sure we will soon make a trek to Tanner's Orchard in Speer. Gotta have those apple cider donuts!
This weekend kicks off the Spoon River Valley Drive in Fulton County, and the festivities resume next weekend. Too crowded, you say? There's also the Knox County Scenic Drive on the same two weekends.
Sunday the German-American Society hosts that Schlactfest at Hickory Grove in Dunlap.
Hayrides and Hotdogs run throughout the month of October on Thursday nights at Sommer Park in Peoria.
Of course the next few weeks will bring even more great fall events. I'll rake up a list and post it soon. Enjoy!

Midweek musings

So far it's been a week of Chinese food for me. I lunched at Yen Ching in Peoria one day, where I noticed that the lunch special prices have gone up a bit, but only by a few cents.

StfRon and I had a chance to grab some lunch at Ming Shee in Peoria, where we admired the newly remodeled dining room. I had the Szechuan chicken, which may be my new favorite dish there.
The downside was that in some fluke occurrance, I managed to splatter about three globs of the spicy orange sauce onto the crotch of my light tan pants and the edge of my green shirt. This sort of thing happens to me once in a blue moon, but of course would happen a: when I was wearing light colored pants and b: when we are going straight from work to dinner to a game (see below). It made me briefly envy our friends' policy of carrying backup clothing.
Hey, maybe someone could make Chico pants and a Chico shirt and I could tote them along with my awesome Chico bag! The Chico bag is bundled up to about 4" by 3", and unfolds to a full size grocery bag. But I digress...
StfRon brought me a wet paper towel, and I thought I had gotten all of the sauce blotted up, but apparently it was masked by the fact that my pants were drenched by then. Upon coming back to work, I noticed the distinct spots appearing.
Ah ha! I realized I should have a Shout wipe in my purse. WRONG. Who knows what happened to it, but my best laid plans of always keeping one in there must have fallen by the wayside.

We actually had tried to hit Ken's Gourmet Chili in Peoria instead, with fall weather upon us it sounded like just the thing, but we found them to be closed at 11:16, despite a sign on the glass stating they would return at 11:00.

Tonight we are going to take in a Peoria Rivermen game for the first time in ages, free courtesy of StfRon's quick dialing fingers and mad radio station trivia skills.

This week Tilley's at the River Station opened for business along Peoria's riverfront. It seems they fared the flooding quite well. We probably won't make it there right away, but I'll be interested to hear what people think of it.

Burgers galore!

We stopped by Sullivan's in Peoria Heights again. Turns out the kitchen is not open yet due to the chef and his wife just having a baby, but should be open very soon.
We got a bit of a rundown of what will be on the menu: hamburgers, bison burgers, Kobe steak burgers, ostrich burgers and the hand cut fries that were served at the Main Street location. Sounds interesting, indeed!

River Trail of Illinois

We've hiked the River Trail of Illinois from East Peoria's Fon du Lac park district building on Veterans Drive a few times over the years. But, with the recent acquisition of some bikes, I thought it might be fun to ride the trail Saturday, which turned out to be a beautiful morning.
The hard-surfaced hiking and biking trail was finished in 1991, running 4.8 miles north and east out of East Peoria along the old Illinois Terminal Railway line.
Starting out on our bikes, we were soon pedaling and pedaling. Each time we would stop pedaling to coast a bit, we would instantly lose speed. It didn't really look like we were ascending, but checking our GPS, we found that at one point in the ride, we had ascended almost 200 feet!
About four miles into the ride, we were able to stop near an ice cream shop in East Peoria and look for a geocache. StfRon quickly found the hidden gem, and I grabbed a bottle of water from the ice cream shop vending machine, since they were closed.
We did encounter a pretty long uphill slope at one point, but we finally made it to the crest.
We continued on the trail to see the end, and turns out it connects with a trail in Morton. We rode to the Oak Lawn trailer park, then turned back, deciding we could check out the Morton portion some other time.
Riding back was the real treat due to the return trip down the slope. Coasting down, I kept picking up speed until at one point I was cruising at 18 MPH. I was able to coast without pedaling for at least a mile, with the breeze blowing through my hair, enjoying the view of all the trees.
It was at that moment that I decided I would have to hit this trail again on my bike when the fall colors are out in full force.
Several people were out enjoying the nice day on the path, from bikers to walkers. I plan to make it more of a habit now, too.

Carl's Bakery & Restaurant

For years we've talked about stopping by Carl's Bakery & Restaurant, 815 E. Camp Street in East Peoria. How could we resist, with the regal rooster perched in the parking lot? But time and time again when we drove by, we found the place closed.
Today we lucked into finding Carl's open. We stepped inside, which was a bit like stepping back in time. I'll bet things haven't changed much there in 40 years.
There were a few booths in the dining room, and a case of pastries along the back wall near the kitchen. There was also a counter which I'm sure used to host a row of stools, but now there's a booth in front of the counter.
At 10 a.m., we found about three tables of people enjoying coffee and reading the paper.
We took a seat along the wall, above which hung an old framed Daylight Donuts poster.
Our waitress, Edna, was a delight, joking with us throughout our visit. She also took care of the fairly steady stream of people who stopped in for the donuts.
Checking out the menu, I was surprised at how reasonable the prices were. All of the sandwiches except the tenderloin were under $4, many of them even under $3.
We both chose the two eggs with corned beef hash, served with a side of toast. While we waited, we shared an apple fritter that seemed very fresh, filled with apple and cinnamon goodness.
Right about the time we were expecting our food to arrive, there was word from the kitchen, where things seemed to be a little harried, that there was no corned beef hash. We were somewhat devastated by this, as we have corned beef hash pretty much every place that serves it. StfRon decided to sub ham and I went with bacon.
Our meals arrived a bit later with an apology, piping hot. StfRon found the ham to have some sweetness to it, and my two scrambled eggs must have come from the biggest egg laying chicken around.
The lady who brought our meals out stopped over at the next booth and bantered around with the couple who are apparently regulars, as she took their order.
In addition to the Daylight Donuts, Carl's is also home to Broaster chicken, and offers catering and special occasion cakes. They are closed Sunday and Mondays, and serve breakfast and lunch the rest of the week.
On our way out, the lady from the kitchen again apologized for our wait, and said, "Next time we'll have corned beef hash...maybe!" with a wry grin.

Round up

Not a whole lot has been going on with us, save for spending large amounts of money on car repairs!!

Last weekend we had a fun time in Milwaukee with our friends, despite plenty of rain. We did the Sprecher Brewery Tour for the first time, and the beer garden at the end of the tour was a nice time, but a group of guys who had been rowdy from the time they checked in ended up getting the boot in the beer garden. And I don't mean the German beer boot...
We had dinner at Karl Ratzsch's, an historic German restaurant opened in 1904. The live piano music lent a bit of an upscale feel to the evening, and I thought the food was pretty good.
We also hit Ma Fischer's for breakfast. The food was decent but service was a little slow.
And of course we hit our standard haunts, the Old German Beer Hall, Alterra by the Lake, Brady Street, the Public Market and the Wicked Hop.

This week I enjoyed lunch at Water Street Wines, Café and Coffees and Adams Street Café, both in Peoria. We had some wings at Gracie's Chicago Style Grill in Washington. We're still waiting to get a gander at the new menu, which last we heard was supposed to be in place three or four weeks ago.

Around the area, I see that Fedora's at McClure and University Street in Peoria has replaced their sign that disappeared from its post in April.
Emo's in Peoria is closing for the season next week, Wednesday, I think, so head on over for one last treat.
German Specialties will be moving to Peoria's Metro Centre in October, just in time for your holiday shopping enjoyment.
I just remembered something I found out a few weeks ago: Vertucci's Chicago Style Eats will soon be open in their larger location just north of where they currently are (the Shell station) in East Peoria.
The restaurant portion of Tavern on the Water in Peoria closed in late July, and now it looks like the riverfront roost will be dubbed Johnny's Hide-A-Way and the Skybar. Not sure who this Johnny is, but just now it made me think of Johnny B's in Westlake. Back in the day, that was a fun hangout with lots of good finger food. Must have been during the mid to late 1990s, when I also spent a lot of time at Barnacle Billy's along the river in Peoria Heights.

Speaking of the riverfront, despite record flood stages for the Illinois River, looks like Peoria Oktoberfest is staying put. We'll be out there in all our glory later on Saturday.
The fest starts Friday at 5 p.m. and continues through Sunday.

Round up

Friday after work we swung by the newly-opened Sullivan's in Peoria Heights for an after work cocktail. The atmosphere is great and if I didn't know it had just opened that week, I would have thought the place had been there for years. Our former Main Street Sullivan's bartender Larry was holding down the fort, and it was good to see him again. The kitchen won't be open for a couple of weeks yet, but the bar is in full swing.
That night we took in the American English concert at Lakeview Museum in Peoria, one of the free Ameren summer concert series events. This fab Beatles tribute band put on a great show, as usual. If you would like to check them out, they'll be at the Morton Pumpkin Festival this Saturday night.

Saturday night we met some friends at Water Street Wines, Café & Coffee in Peoria and shared one of each of the cheese fondues. Both were good, but I would have to say I prefer the classic. We had a fun time, and I enjoyed our waitress' sense of humor. The second wine we tried, a Shiraz, was quite good, especially after a gentleman dining in the restaurant came over and gave us some chocolate to compliment the wine. I'll have to get the name of the wine from our friends, who were wise enough to jot it down.
We then walked over to John S. Rhodell Brewery & Bar for a pint. It's been a while since I'd been in there, and it was such a nice night, we were able to sit on the brick patio.

Today my mind was on the tomato grilled cheese soup from Le Café in Peoria. I think it may have been the roasted red pepper tomato sauce on our asparagus appetizer at Water Street Wines that reminded me of the soup. It's a hearty, comforting, cheesy soup. Slogging though the rain to the café's door in the Metro Centre, though, only led me to a dark restaurant with a piece of paper taped to the door informing customers that the restaurant is closed for major renovations. It will be interesting to see what the changes will be.
Oh, well, chances are that the soup of the day would have been something else anyway, right?

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.