Before we begin today, I want to welcome another fine local Peoria business to the MBIP Bucket List Brigade, Cracked Pepper. Cracked Pepper is a great restaurant that also has a great catering service. There’s two locations and MBIP has been to both of them, check out those posts, here and here. Check out Cracked Pepper and all of the other fine local businesses over at the MBIP Bucket List Page. Okay, back to the blog, already in progress...

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Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger, starring this week’s host, Table 19 in the Pere Marquette Hotel and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, please welcome this week’s host from beautiful downtown Peoria on Main Street, Table 19!

Last year on this edition of SNC we sampled a burger and had some great corn fritters at Table 19, so that’s tonight’s destination. It’s right up the street from where I work, so I thought we’d just take a walk there on this nice summer night. Table 19 is located in the Pere Marquette on Main Street, so we’re actually combining two posts tonight: Saturday Night Cheeseburger and Eating Main Street. Talk about multi-tasking!

There’s the Pere Marquette, a classic Peoria hotel. They need to check the lights, though, looking slightly burned out up there!

And here we are at Table 19. The place is named after a table that used to occupy space in the restaurant Carnegie's that used to be in the Pere Marquette back in the day. You can read about the history of that right here.

Let’s go in and see if the place has changed in a year.

It looks pretty much the same in here. For some reason the bar in here reminds me of an airport bar. It’s kind of wide open and stuck in the middle of the room in here. The same seat at the bar is open that I sat at last year, let’s snag it and get settled in for the evening.

Here’s Shelley, the pretty bartender for the evening serving up the first bottle of beer. Shelley was on duty last year when we were here and she remembered me. Great seeing her again, love that smile!

Grant’s a bar back here and he was working last year too, this is like going back in a time warp tonight! I didn’t get a picture of Grant last year, but I didn’t miss the shot this year. In addition to doing bar back duties here, Grant’s also taking classes at Bradley. He’s originally from Cincinnati, which always brings back scary airport memories for me. A long story I’ll tell some other post.

I went to order and was really bummed out because they took the corn fritters off the menu. Shelley said they’d been gone for awhile. That was the highlight of the dinner last year. Oh well, what are you going to do?

Here’s a shot of the middle of the bar with the lit up bottled inventory standing at attention.

There’s a nice selection of beers on tap here, a total of ten to choose from.

Suddenly...green garnishes in bottles!

Large wooden communal tables and chairs are placed behind the bar in the front room here.

There’s comfortable chairs over in this corner that has a living room vibe to it.

As you can see, they offer a nice selection of wine here.

Meanwhile, back at the bar...

The table has been set and it looks like it’s just about dinner time.

Check out the salt and pepper containers, fancy-schmancy!

Dinner is served!

I got the Baked Vidalia Onion Soup with homemade croutons and melted gruyere cheese.

I also got an order of the crab cakes that’s served with a tomato-jalapeno jam underneath. The dinner was really tasty, I especially loved the onion soup, but I’m sure missing those corn fritters!

After dinner I was wandering around the hotel when I came upon this room...

Hey, check it out! An ice machine, it makes me feel right at home!

Hello there Mr. Ice Machine, how’s it going for you tonight?

Fuck you asshole! I was trying to get a little shuteye till you barged in here and woke me up. Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?

Wow, someone’s sure grumpy tonight! You’re just as cold as the ice machine in my apartment building.

What do you expect, asshole, of course we’re cold, we’re fucking ice machines you idiot! Now get the fuck out of here, this ice is only for people staying at the hotel, you can’t have any.

Well, that’s certainly bad news. First no corn fritters and now no ice...hey what’s that down there?

Hey...don’t even think about it asshole!

You know what, Mr. Ice Machine, if I can’t have any ice...

Then...

Nobody’s going to have any ice. What do you think of that, Mr. Ice Machine?

Aaaahhh, you prick, I’m melting! Help!

Well look at that, you’ve gone from an ice machine to a cold water dispenser in a matter of minutes. That was fun, but now I gotta run! We’ll see you all tomorrow!

My Meal

I was severely disappointed that they took the corn fritters off of the menu. The onion soup and crab cakes were good, but I sure missed those corn fritters. Looks like I need to make a return trip to Brasky’s!

SNC Rating:

Two Galloping Gourmets: The meal was good, but it left me jonesing for corn fritters!

Table 19 (In The Pere Marquette Hotel)
501 Main Street
Peoria

Related Posts: Eating Main Street: Pepper’s Cafe, Haddad’s Downtown, Cookies By Design, Nut Hut, Cracked Pepper and Richards On Main.

Here it comes your 19th Nervous Breakdown.

Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!

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Today’s post was brought to you by Cracked Pepper. Check them and all the other fine businesses helping to support this blog over at the MBIP Bucket List Page. Your Daily Random Linkage awaits you at the bottom of the that page as well!

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