Live, from Peoria Heights, It’s Friday Night starring this week’s host, Joe’s Original Italian & Martini Bar with special guest stars, Bailey, Tom, Karen, Alladean, Katie and Shane!
Now please welcome this week’s host from Restaurant Row in Peoria Heights, Joe’s Original Italian & Martini Bar!
Here we are at Joe’s Original Italian & Martini Bar in Peoria Heights. We’re out on a rare Friday night instead of a Saturday night this week due to scheduling conflicts.
Okay, let’s go in and begin the MBIP weekend night out on the town!
As we walked in, I met the pretty hostess Bailey who told me to sit where I wanted, so let’s go find a seat in here and start our Friday evening at Joe’s!
Uh oh, as I enter I see two familiar faces at a table over here…
It’s Karen and Tom Whalen who just happen to be our dinner guests tonight here on MBIP!
I’ve known these two for years and in addition to being good friends, they’re also the owners and operators of Technicraft where I get my posters and printing for MBIP and The Marty Monologues done.
Technicraft was founded by Karen’s father, Ted Kern back in 1969 and Karen and Tom have kept this local business alive and it’s a thriving local Peoria business.
It’s great to see these two tonight and have a Friday night dinner with them!
Our server for the evening is Alladean and he served us up drinks while giving me the mid finger salute! I prompted him to do this, so don’t think he was being rude, as usual it’s me promoting bad behavior in the workplace!
He took our food order and I promptly abandoned Karen and Tom to get some photos inside of the restaurant and bar.
Spesking of the bar, here it is in all of its glory!
They have a wonderful bar and dining area in the front of the restaurant.
There’s tables here with a view of Prospect and Peoria Heights outside of the spacious front windows.
The kitchen is over in the middle of the building and they’re preparing our Friday night dinner as I take these photos. It’s all very exciting!
As I was taking photos I ran into Katie who’s looking gorgeous and it’s always delightful to run into her here at Joe’s!
There’s more dining areas here in the back and along the side wall opposite the kitchen.
There’s an elevated section here in the back corner of the restaurant with large comfortable booths for your dining and drinking pleasure.
Meanwhile, back at our table…
Our appetizer for the evening has been served up, we got the Stuffed Mushrooms which are large mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat and covered in a creamy Alfredo sauce and cheese mixture.
These are a rich treat and they are borderline decadent and so delicious! This is a wonderful start to a fabulous Friday night dinner at Joe’s!
Shane, who’s the owner here at Joe’s came over to the table to say hi. It’s always a pleasure to see Shane, who’s a friendly host and it turns out that Karen and Tom do business with his mom at Technicraft.
There they are having a nice conversation about that fact!
Now the main courses have shown up at our dinner table and they look nothing short of fabulous!
Tom got the spaghetti and meatballs, Karen got Fettucini Di Mare and I got their signature house dish, Basta Pasta.
Everything looks amazing, time to dig in to our Friday night dinner!
Karen and Tom raved about their dinners and said it was some of the best Italian food they’ve ever experienced!
The house specialty, Basta Pasta was an unbelievable pasta and seafood creation!
It combines thin spaghetti with jumbo shrimp, tasty crabmeat and a spicy marinara sauce and it is a saucy taste sensation! It’s so spicy and delicious and a fabulous Friday evening meal!
Thanks to everyone at Joe’s Original Italian and Martini Bar for a wonderful and satisfying Friday night on the town.
And thanks to Karen and Tom for joining me and being such fun Friday night guest stars for the evening!
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Joe’s Original Italian & Martini Bar
4609 N. Prospect Road
Peoria Heights
309-682-7007
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