Live, from West Peoria, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger starring this week’s host, Mike’s Tavern and featuring special guest stars, Jason, Michelle, Taelor, Katey, Andrea, Javion and John.

Now please welcome, all the way from West Peoria, Mike’s Tavern!

The idea for Saturday Night Cheeseburger started way back in April of 2010. I was living in New York City back then and doing my 365 bar crawl blog. Saturday night’s at bars in New York City can be crazy and so I decided that on Saturday’s I’d go out to a bar a little earlier and get a cheeseburger. People enjoyed this, so I continued it with my next blog, Marty After Dark and kept the cheesy tradition alive on the next blog, Tripping With Marty. I moved back to Peoria in 2012 and started this blog, Meanwhile, Back In Peoria and continued with the Saturday Night Cheeseburger posts here in Peoria.

Well, by 2013, I was kind of sick of cheeseburgers and was running out of places to go to around here, so I had my final cheeseburger at Burger Barge and the next week announced that Saturday Night Cheeseburger was over and these posts would now be shortened to: Saturday Night.

That was eleven years ago and now I’m kind of in the cheeseburger mood again, so I’ve decided to resurrect Saturday Night Cheeseburger and tonight is the start of this return. I’ve decided to sample 52 cheeseburgers and rate all of them. This way we’ll have a year’s worth of cheeseburgers.

However, this won’t be a weekly series because if I go somewhere and they don’t have cheeseburgers on the menu, then it won’t happen that week.

But we will do 52 cheeseburgers and the first one is going to happen at one of my favorite Peoria taverns, Mike’s Tavern!

Here we are, so let’s go in and begin the return of Saturday Night Cheeseburger!

Wow, there’s a nice crowd in here and I see a familiar face at the bar over there…

It’s my friend Jason, who is just one of what will be many special guest stars tonight! Jason had never been to Mike’s and here he is enjoying his inaugural beer at this legendary West Peoria saloon.

Jason is a podcaster and was a host on Couch Pilots Podcast and is currently co-hosting Radio Rewind and Yesterdaze.

I was recently a guest on Yesterdaze and we discussed the classic mockumentary film, Spinal Tap. I’ll have photos from that podcast this coming Wednesday on the blog, so stay tuned for that!

Someone who’s no stranger to Mike’s Tavern or this blog is my friend, Michelle!

It was wonderful to see her, as always and here she is posing with Jason and looking pretty as always!

Speaking of pretty, here’s the friendly bartender for the evening, Taelor serving up an ice cold can of beer! She then took our Saturday night cheeseburger order! I love it when things fall into place like this!

Here’s Michelle with even more special guest stars, from left, Katey, Andrea and Michelle! Great to meet Katey and Andrea!

There’s a shot of the back of the bar and the eight beers on tap.

I love the vintage Miller Beer sign flanked by the two Schlitz lights! The tin ceiling is classic as is the cigarette machine and the school desks that have been sitting in Mike’s for decades!

There’s a communal table in the back room along with a state of the art dart machine and a discreet gaming room for all of you gamblers out there!

There’s a sign with the daily specials and a pay phone that’s been here about as long as those school desks!

Meanwhile, back at the bar…

It’s cheeseburger time!

Jason and I each got a cheeseburger and we split an order of the Truffle Fries. The fries were seasoned perfectly, were crisp and delicious. We’re off to a great start, now on to the star of the show!

The cheeseburger looks fantastic! Mike’s and the cheeseburger were recently featured on WEEK’s popular “You Gotta Eat” segment.

The cheeseburger is a double burger and I got mine with lettuce and onion and it was such a tasty and delicious cheeseburger. They use fresh beef and it’s seasoned and grilled to perfection and there’s such a fabulous and juicy flavor!

You can read more about it in the ratings section below, but this is definitely a cheeseburger you need to try!

Mike’s kitchen is open, Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 9pm, stop by and check it out!

Here’s the man who prepared our fantastic cheeseburger dinners, Javion, posing behind the bar with Taylor.

You did a fabulous job, Javion, thanks for a delicious Saturday night cheeseburger dinner!

Michelle introduced me to John and John’s grandfather was none other than Mike Jakobi, the original owner of Mike’s and the namesake of the bar!

My Grandpa, Leo Seitz was a regular here at Mike’s back in the day and used to talk about Mike all the time, so it was an honor to meet John!

John said he grew up at the bar and he’s got some classic stories about Mike’s Tavern and his grandfather. It was wonderful to chat and reminisce with him about Mike’s tavern!

Here’s a closing shot of myself and Michelle from a fun evening at Mike’s Tavern. A classic Peoria Tavern!

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Cheeseburger Rating

This was one of the best cheeseburgers I’ve ever had in my life and I’ve had a lot of cheeseburgers in my day!

The beef is seasoned to perfection and is seared perfectly on the outside and so juicy and tasty when you bite into it. The melted cheddar cheese is rich and velvety and I always preach that a bun can make or break a cheeseburger. This bun was bakery fresh, buttered and grilled and this is cheeseburger perfection at its finest hour!

A perfect way to start out this series of 52 cheeseburgers!