One of my earliest hot dog memories is going to Raber Packing Company with my dad as a kid and getting a free hot dog from the butchers there. I always loved that and wonder if they still have this perk for kids?
Well, we’re going to find out because we’re headed to Raber’s for the fifth week of our MBIP Dog Days Of Summer tour!
Here we are at the impressive Raber Packing Company on Farmington Road.
I love the cow hanging out in the front of the building. Moo!
You enter over here through this door on the side of the building…
It’s really nice in here and I love the painting of the Founding Fathers of Rabers that is over the doors near the ceiling.
There’s also a nice chalk piece of art thanking all the local businesses that helped build and construct this building after the original Rabers had that devastating fire at the original location back in 2018.
As you can see, they have a huge variety of hot dogs that you can take home and cook up yourself, but we’re eating ours in-house today.
But before we do that, let’s take a look around in here.
There’s Sam’s Steak & Chop Shop over on that side.
All of their freshly butchered and in-house cut meats are for sale in this refrigerated room. This is a cool (pun intended) room to come into on a hot summer day!
Fritz’s Delicatessen is over here with a large case of fresh cheeses, meats, house-made salads and other tempting taste treats.
There’s grocery items for sale in the middle of the store.
As I was wandering around, I ran into Raber’s President, Buddy!
Always great to see Buddy and he told me the practice of a free hot dog for kid’s is still very much alive here at Raber’s and pointed to a sing and bell at the end of the deli case…
Check out that custom pig bell and even if you’re a “kid at heart” you can get a free hot dog! Nice!
Okay, speaking of hot dogs, let’s mosey over to Carroll’s Smokehouse in the back and place our order for this week’s hot dog.
Look at all the choices and on Saturdays, they have hot dogs for one dollar! What a doggone good deal!
Check out the menu and prices here, this has to be one of the most inexpensive lunch spots in town!
And all the meat is freshly prepared in-house, so these burgers, dogs and sandwiches are some of the freshest lunch meals you’re going to find in Peoria!
Check out this trio of friendly women preparing this week’s hot dog!
I decided to sit in this corner table and check it out, here’s this week’s hot dog guest star…
My friend Tricia! Always wonderful to see her and hang out for an afternoon lunch with her.
Tricia is a local writer and author who writes under the pen name of, P.A. Nimmo.
Here’s her two books, Running Blind in Traffic and Diary of a Mad White Woman.
Running Blind in Traffic is the colorful story of Tricia’s life and Diary of a Mad White Woman is a collection of entertaining and interesting true-life short stories.
Check them both out by clicking on the links above, both are well-written and uniquely captivating books.
Now on to the star of this week’s doggone show, the Raber’s hot dog.
I thought this week, we’d skip the chili and cheese and sample a pure Raber’s hot dog, topped with mustard and chopped onions. It looks absolutely fabulous!
There’s Tricia taking a bit of her hot dog and she gave it an enthusiastic thumb’s up!
The hot dog is really tasty and the bun is bakery fresh. I’ve had the hot dogs here before and they are a true tasty treat!
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Hot Dog Rating
Reber’s gets a high and well-deserved rating of three and a half Wienermobiles. This is an all beef hot dog, it’s made right here at Raber’s, so it’s the freshest dog in town! Try one out and you won’t be barking up the wrong tree at all!
Thanks to Tricia for joining me and be sure to check out her books!
Thanks to Buddy and everyone at Raber’s for a delicious hot dog lunch!
Raber’s has a fun event happening in about a month in August. It’s their first ever Taste Fest and it’s happening on Wednesday, August 21. There’s going to be food vendors, drinks, beer and live music by Still Shine. Check out all the details by clicking here, it sounds like it’s going to be fun summer event!
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3000 W. Farmington Road
West Peoria
309-673-0721
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Related Posts: The MBIP Dog Days Of Summer…2024 @: Fort Clark Gastropub, Theo’s, Jack’s On Adams and Emo’s Dairy Mart.