Rhythm Kitchen Music Cafe is one of Peoria’s truly unique restaurant, bar and musical hubs in downtown Peoria. It’s no wonder that PJ Star Food and Dining Reporter Cassidy Waigand chose Rhythm Kitchen as her favorite Peoria restaurant for 2025.
Tonight I thought we’d eat at the bar, enjoy the fun New Orleans vibes and since it’s Wednesday, we’ll be enjoying tunes from one of the rotating DJ’s that spin records here every Wednesday evening!
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Bar Number 26: Rhythm Kitchen Music Cafe. Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Here we are at one of my favorite Peoria places, Rhythm Kitchen in downtown Peoria. Let’s go in and begin our 26th visit to a local bar.
There’s the entrance over there, so let’s enter and see what’s happening in here this evening.
Wow, they have a nice crowd in here and there’s the ever-pleasant hostess, A.B. Always a pleasure to see her smiling face!
And there’s our destination for the evening, the 26th bar of this tour!
Dylan was bartending and it’s always great to see and chat with him! He took my dinner order and now it’s time for me to snap some photos in here.
There’s a shot from the other end of the bar and as you can see, they have a nice inventory of beer, seltzer and drinks behind the bar!
The bar has a fun and festive New Orleans spirit and I love the musical instruments hanging overhead.
There’s a reception tonight for this month’s featured artist, Jay Babin. Check out the details by clicking here.
Every Wednesday they have a DJ in the house and tonight it’s our friend, Dusty 45’s!
Always great to see him and listen to him spin tunes! I asked him to pick a song for this evening and for our 365 bar crawl and told him I’d check back later to see what he chose! Keep on scrolling to find out what Dusty picked!
Meanwhile, back at the bar, Loren stopped by to say hi and chat. Everyone here is always so friendly and it’s got such a warm vibe in here!
And now…dinner is served! They have a brand new menu here at Rhythm Kitchen and it feature a Grilled Cheese sandwich. I got it with a cup of tomato soup and it looks absolutely delicious, time to dig in!
Wow, the sandwich is so tasty! It’s grilled to perfection, there’s three kinds of cheese melted inside and shaved fresh parmesan on top. I had to give it a dunk in the tomato soup and it was a fabulous and rich dinner!
I went back to the kitchen area and thanked Chef Jason and Julie who owns the Rhythm Kitchen for a fantastic meal and another fun evening in downtown Peoria!
My friend Lisa was seated at a table over here with her friend, Kim and it was great to see and visit with both of them!
And now, for the song that DJ Dusty 45’s chose, well, he chose not one, but two to represent this evening and our bar crawl!
They are: The Black Rider by Frank Black And The Catholics and Good Times by The Easybeats.
Fantastic choices, thanks so much to Dusty 45’s for picking those tunes!
Here’s the February schedule for the Wednesday DJ night at the Rhythm Kitchen Music Cafe. Stop by and enjoy the fabulous food and music in one of Peoria’s most unique and distinctive downtown destinations!
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Drinks
I used some of the donation money and took an Uber and had four bottles of Budweiser. If you’d like to donate to help with the cost of this 365 bar tour, just click here and hit the donate button!
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305 SW Water Street
Peoria
309-676-9668
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