Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Friday Night with this week’s host, New Amsterdam and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, please welcome this week’s host in beautiful downtown Peoria overlooking the Illinois River...New Amsterdam!
First things first, you may notice that this is titled, "Friday Night @ New Amsterdam," that's because I have a work Christmas party on Saturday and as we all know I don't blog about anything connected to my job. So I have to do my Saturday night thing on Friday and I do have to confess it's kind of screwed me up and I was pretty screwed up to begin with! But anyway, here we are at New Amsterdam on Water Street in downtown Peoria. This is the front of the building, but to get inside...
We have to walk up these stairs, turn a corner and...
Whoomp, here we are at New Amsterdam!
Let's go in and begin this Friday night out on the town.
"Please seat yourself," alright, don't mind if I do!
Hey look, Greg Williams plays here on Fridays, we'll have to check him out after dinner!
Here's a table overlooking the beer garden, but since I'm all alone, I prefer to sit at...
The bar...and I think I see two familiar faces at the end of the bar...
It's Karl and Jason who we met last week at the end of the bar at Seven On Prospect! Ha, this is a first here on MBIP! Karl said he had several people approach him and told him they saw him on the blog. I told them I'm stalking them and of course we all know what song needs to be cued up now! Since Jason picked our dinner last week, I let him pick the beer for the evening and he chose a bottle of Duvel...
Which is served up by Alex, the friendly bartender on duty...
And it comes with it's very own signature glass. Very nice! Jason picked another winner!
As you can see, they have an impressive number of beers on tap, Alex told me there's 27 different varieties of beer to choose from including...
Crazy Jane from The Peoria Brewing Company that we visited last Thursday. Very cool!
As you can see, they also have a nice inventory of bottled beers in stock inside of the cooler at the end of the bar.
At the other end of the bar is a New Amsterdam sign and Santa Claus. Ho, ho and ho!
Also hanging out at this end of the bar is New Amsterdam owner, Todd with Natalie and Amy. Both Natalie and Amy work here, but they're off duty. You know you're in a great place where people that work there choose to hang out in their off hours!
There's round tables and booths opposite at the bar for seating.
I love this painting of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra from their Rat Pack days.
Meanwhile, back at the bar...
Alex has challenged Jason to what he calls, "a stupid bar trick."
The challenge is to remove the dollar bill without touching the beer bottle that's on top of it. Jason studied the situation and after about a minute...
He wrapped the dollar around the neck of the bottle, flipped it over and the dollar was his! Pretty impressive and after that Karl and Jason called it a night.
Then suddenly, dinner appears, I love it when that happens! I started off with the 5th Avenue Chili, a perfect dish on a chilly winter evening.
For the main course I got the Lobster Roll with a side order of cole slaw.
You can read more about it in the review below, but it was so good, big chunks of lobster wrapped up in a toasted, buttery fresh hot dog roll!
After dinner I walked over to the other side of the room...
To listen to a set from Greg Williams, a longtime veteran of the Peoria area music scene.
Greg plays here every Friday night and it's an impressive show. I enjoyed all the tunes, but I was really knocked out by his acoustic version the the classic Beach Boys song, "Good Vibrations." This was a fun night and thanks to everyone at New Amsterdam for a fun Friday night out on the town! We'll see you all tomorrow!
My Meal
New Amsterdam’s menu matches the extensive list of beers on tap. There’s a lot to choose from but I kept it fairly simple on this outing. I started out with the 5th Avenue Chili, the reason I chose this as a starter for the meal was two-fold: Chili is a perfect dish on a wintry night and their chili is served without beans, the way true chili should be served (don’t get me going on this or you’ll be sorry!) The chili is served up hot in a crock and it’s topped off with a generous dollop of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and creamy sour cream. The chili is thick with chunks of savory hamburger intermingling with a spicy and sweet tomato base. It was the perfect thing to eat while staring outside at the Illinois River on a chilly winter evening.
For the main course I got the Lobster Roll with a side of cole slaw. I’ve had many variations of Lobster Rolls in my day and they do it right at New Amsterdam: They just keep it simple. They slightly batter and season generous pieces of lobster and serve it up on a bakery fresh buttered hot dog roll with just a hint of mayonnaise. The lobster was flavorful and the buttered and toasted hot dog bun hit the meal out of the park. The cole slaw was crunchy and creamy and was a nice side dish for the tasty sandwich.
FN Rating
Three and a quarter Galloping Gourmets—A perfect combination of treats on a chilly winter evening and extra points for chili that is served sans beans!
New Amsterdam
120 SW Water Street
Peoria
309-439-9099
Related posts: Saturday Night @ Salt, Brasky’s Bar & Grill and The Fox Pub.