Live, from Peoria, It’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger, starring The Silver Dollar Tavern and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, please welcome this week’s host, all the way from Prospect Road in Peoria Heights, the Silver Dollar Tavern!
Here we are at the Silver Dollar on Prospect in Peoria Heights. As you can see, it's daylight out and a little too bright for my tastes. While I never blog about my night job, I will tell you that we have to work late tonight and as I wrote last week, it's been a little bit of a challenge to find kitchen's open after 9PM in Peoria. I've heard that they have a great cheeseburger here, but this kitchen closes at 1:50PM sharp on weekends, so we're here around 1PM, let's go check it out and hopefully it's darker inside.
The Silver Dollar has been in this location for over 50 years, I haven't been in here for over two decades, I'm anxious to see if it's changed at all, let's go in and see.
Wow, it hasn't changed a bit in here, kind of like walking back in time, let's go snag a stool at the bar.
Since I have to go to work later, I'm just drinking iced tea, served by Mary, the friendly and pretty bartender on duty this afternoon. Mary looked familiar and when she saw my name on the MBIP business card, she said, "I was in your magazine!" And then told me she was in one of POP's infamous winter swimsuit issues. I immediately remembered her and she told me the photo from the magazine was on the bulletin board on the wall opposite the bar.
Here's the bulletin board...
And there's Mary, I remember her shivering out in the cold while MBIP contributor Jeff Putnam took this photo for the magazine over twenty years ago. Memories...
Okay, here's my view of the bar and the taps shot for Spike all in one handy-dandy photo.
There's tables opposite the bar and way too much sunlight streaming in. As Al noted in last week's post, bars should really invest in heavy duty window shades for the daytime.
Here's the pool table in the back corner of the bar, with more of that dreaded sunlight flooding in through the windows. I promise next week I'll do this at night!
You gotta love the rules in here, especially number three...I'm still trying to figure out what that means!
Here's a shot from the end of the bar and this guy's wondering what the hell I'm doing taking pictures in here.
There's a back room with tables to the right of the bar.
Check out the Elvis pinball machine, I've never seen one of these. I know Dave Hoover would love to get his mitts on this machine!
Check out the boar's head on the wall, that was shot at Ted Nugent's farm by one of the bartender's here.
Hey, I see a couple of familiar faces back behind the bar...
It's an autographed photo of Captain Jinks and Salty Sam! This TV duo from Peoria's past has been written about on MBIP by Bob Gordon and Jaws the Cabbie.
Alright, the condiment basket has been placed in front of me, looks like it's just about cheeseburger time!
Wow, this is one incredible looking cheeseburger!
I had to take another shot of it, this is like cheeseburger porn!
It's all that and a bag of chips. Kitchen Cooked chips to be precise. I emailed them last week and asked if I could tour their facilities in Farmington and haven't heard back from them. I'll try and email them again today after this post goes up.
Wow, this is one delicious cheeseburger. As good as it looks, it tastes even better!
Burp!
A glance out the window and I'm out of here. Thanks to Mary and The Silver Dollar for a great time and a delicious cheeseburger, see you all tomorrow!
My Cheeseburger
Hand’s down, I think this may be the best cheeseburger in Peoria. It’s a half pound of grilled, tasty, juicy ground beef and if you’re really hungry or smoked a ton of pot, you can get the full pound burger and fries. I got mine topped with a hefty mound of cheddar cheese, several slabs of thick bacon and savory grilled onions. And what really sealed the deal was the bun. Bakery fresh, buttered and toasted. If you live in the area, go and try the Silver Dollar burger. If you don’t live in the area, it’s worth the trip to the Heights to sample this cheeseburgrly delight!
The Silver Dollar is also famous for their breakfasts. In addition to eggs, corn beef hash, pancakes and your standard breakfast combos, they have the Mikey Special which is two eggs, sausage and cheese on a toasted homemade biscuit covered in the house sausage gravy.
Another specialty is their tenderloin sandwich and the french fries are handcut and homemade. No bag fries at the Dollar! And they have Kitchen Cooked potato chips...I wonder if I’ll ever get a tour there?
Cheeseburger Rating
Four Wimpy’s, one of the best burgers I’ve ever had! And a hat tip to Derek Cruit, who sent me an email and suggested I try the cheeseburger at Silver Dollar. Thanks Derek, I owe you a couple of beers for that suggestion!
Silver Dollar Tavern
4322 N Prospect Rd.
Peoria Heights
309-685-9413
Further reading: Trip Advisor, DIVE In Peoria! and Barfinder.
