Live, from East Peoria, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger starring this week’s host, Granite City Food & Brewery and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, over the river and through the woods from East Peoria...please welcome this week’s host: Granite City Food & Brewery!
Okay, the MBIP mobile is pointed towards East Peoria and it's time to let this edition of Saturday Night Cheeseburger begin. Sound the trumpets!
Here we are, wow, this place is huge!
Let's go through the double doors and see what's happening inside of Granite City on a Saturday night.
As you can see, the dining room is quite spacious with wooden tables and high backed booths for your dining pleasure.
The kitchen has glass walls, so you can watch your meal being prepared if you want to.
Here's what makes Granite City truly unique, they have their very own in-house brewery, which is right here to the side of the dining room. I'm hoping to get a closer look at this in a bit, but staring at these vats of beer has made me want to go to...
The bar! Even though it's just about an hour from closing time, there's a decent crowd in here. I do spy a seat at the end of the bar, so let's go snag that and get settled in.
Here's a somewhat shitty shot of the taps, but it doesn't matter, you won't recognize any of them as their all brewed here in the restaurant. I decide to try one of them and it's served up by...
Nick, the friendly bartender on duty. I got the Octoberfest, which I found a little strange seeing that it's November. Oh well, cheers and beers to all of you!
Sammie was the other bartender on duty and no offense to Nick, but she was the prettier one of this bartending duo.
Here's the view of the bar from my perch.
Glasses and Granite City Growlers to go hang overhead at the bar.
The large screen TV sets behind the bar are placed up high, so they're not in your face, I like that.
There's a row of booths lining the wall behind the bar.
And remember that closer look of the in-house brewery I was hoping to get?
Well here we are. This is Max, who's a manager for Granite City, he lives in Indianapolis and is here in town for a couple of weeks to oversee the restaurant. He told me that each one of these vats holds close to 500 gallons of beer.
He tried to explain the brewing process to me, but quite frankly, it went over my head.
I was too obsessed over the fact that each vat contained 500 gallons of beer. I asked Matt if they had any competitive drinking games here where if you drank an entire vat, the beer was free, but sadly he told me no. Well, at least I tried, that would've been one hell of a post—"Marty Vs. Beer."
There's more vats in this chilled back room. All the lines from these vats run directly to the bar.
Speaking of the bar, here we are back at it and Nick told me the cheeseburger is just about ready.
And minutes later here he is serving up this week's cheeseburger.
Wow, check out the cheese on the burger, it's totally hidden the bacon. I also got a side of cole slaw and the whole meal looks amazing, including the mustard, which isn't your average generic mustard. It's spicy deli mustard. Hoohah!
Here's the burger all dressed up with a liberal slathering of the aforementioned mustard, pepper and a trio of onion rings topping the burger like a spicy halo.
They serve up a delicious burger here at Granite City, you can read more about it in the review below.
And for dessert, Nick poured me a mini beer. It was India Pale Ale and it was the perfect nightcap! Cheers and we'll see you all tomorrow.
My Cheeseburger
I tried out the “Bedda Chedda Bacon Burger,” in spite of the fact that when you order it, it sounds like you have a speech impediment. Once I got over that hurdle, I had another beer and before you could say, “speech therapist,” the burger was served up fresh from the kitchen.
The burger is topped with smokehouse bacon, a heaping mound of fresh cheddar cheese and slathered in their homemade coffee bean barbecue sauce. I was a little leery about the sauce, I’m not a big fan of coffee or anything flavored with coffee, but after the first bite I was sold. This burger has a dizzying array of tastes combining as you take a bite. The first thing that hit me was the tangy barbecue sauce which was really tasty and I didn’t taste any coffee flavor at all. That, added with the smoky, savory bacon, the mound of cheddar cheese and the burger itself which was juicy and delicious made quite a powerful sensation with my tastebuds. And the bun was fresh, soft and the perfect compliment to a wonderful burger.
Cheeseburger Rating
Three Wimpys, a wonderful tasty and delicious burger at Granite City!
Granite City Food & Brewery
230 Conference Center Drive
East Peoria
309-699-8080
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