Almost live, from Peoria, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger! Tonight’s host is Richard’s on Main with special musical guest appearance by Turas, and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, from down on Main Street, please welcome, Richard’s on Main!
My friend and MBIP contributor, Jeff Putnam is in an Irish band called, Turas and they're playing here tonight at Kelleher's Irish Pub on Water Street in downtown Peoria. I've heard they have a good cheeseburger here, so I thought this would be a good destination for tonight's edition of SNC.
Wow, it's packed in here, they're four deep at the bar!
As I squeeze in to the bar to get a beer, I see a couple of familiar faces...
Two more MBIP friends and contributors: Bob and Danielle Gordon! They got here earlier and were able to secure seats at the bar. I squeezed in and was able to capture a small chunk of the bar, but no seat.
For a few minutes, I thought the guy next to me at the bar was one of those jerk-offs that can't stop staring at their iPad at the bar. It turns out that he's doing the sound for Turas on this thing! His name is Bob, but he's known professionally as BTSG (Bob The Sound Guy.)
And speaking of Turas, here they are playing live in the middle of the bar! They sound great, if you like Irish music, check out their website.
The band has pulled in a standing room only crowd tonight, which is great for them, but not so good for this SNC post. It's tough doing a blog post in a crowded bar.
And as you can see, the crowd isn't thinning out. Ugh! Let me go back to my little corner of the bar next to Bob and Danielle and try to figure out how I'm going to do this in here tonight.
Okay, a bald man has taken my place at the bar! So I have to leave, whenever a bald man steals your spot, it's time to move on, it's just the rules. I'll come back here another time, when I can properly document the place.
On my way to Kelleher's I saw a restaurant on the corner that wasn't too crowded. Let's go see if they have a cheeseburger there. I'm starting to get hungry.
Here's the place, Beignet's. They got a good review in the Journal Star, so let's go see if they have a cheeseburger or anything resembling a cheeseburger in here.
Shit, it's closed! We're having lots of luck tonight, the only problem is, it's all bad luck. To the MBIP mobile!
Back at Kelleher's, Bob suggested Richard's on Main for a cheeseburger. My bar-crawling co-pilot, Al Rizo suggested Richard's in an email a while ago, so that's tonight's revised destination. Sometimes you have to wing it doing this blog, so let's fly over to Richard's and see what's happening there.
Okay, through the magic of the internet, you're spared a pitiful attempt at parallel parking on Main Street and here we are at Richard's on Main. Steaks till 4AM, this sounds like my kind of place!
The bar is located down these stairs, so it's away we go!
It looks promising so far, let's go inside and see if there's room to move in here.
It looks nice in here, but it doesn't look like there's a seat at the bar. Oh well, fuck it, at this point I'm just going to get a table because I'm starving by now! There's no rule that says I have to sit at the bar on SNC.
Hey, hey, hey, look at this! The side of the bar is empty, maybe our luck is changing! Let's snag a stool and get this episode of SNC rolling!
Here's my view of the bar from my perch. Nice and dark in here and I like the brick walls, definitely an Al bar!
Friendly bartender Paul serves up a beer and we're definitely back on track!
It's hard to see from this fuzzy photo, but they have a cheeseburger pizza on the menu. I had such a wonderful experience with the cheeseburger pizza at Castaways in Chillicothe, I decided to try the cheeseburger pizza here and see how it stacks up to their pie. Kind of a battle of the cheeseburger pizzas! May the best pie win! Okay, I placed my order, let's take a tour of Richard's.
There's lots of tables in the large back room behind the bar, but it's a little brighter back there, so I'm glad I found a seat at the bar.
There's a couple tables up front as well, opposite the bar.
Check out the vintage hockey game, very cool!
Richard's has lots of classic archival photos of Peoria buildings on the walls.
Here's a photo of the block on Main Street, that Richard's is on, from years ago.
I'm not sure what this photo is, but I'm guessing maybe an old shot of the Rialto movie theater?
And of course we have to do the patent-pending taps shot for Spike! Lots of beer on tap at Richard's to choose from!
There's another room down these stairs, let's see what's down here.
There's more tables down here...
And not one, but two pool tables in the back!
Back at the bar, I look up and see they've got a tin ceiling, always the mark of a great bar!
And as I look down, there's the cheeseburger pizza! It looks impressive, except what are those green things on top, under the cheese?
Oh...it's pickles. The pizza is...well...uh, you can read the review below. Let's just say that Castaways is winning the Central Illinois cheeseburger pizza war so far!
Okay, I had a beer for dessert and so it's out the door...
Up the stairs...
And back on the road, homeward bound! See you all tomorrow!
My Meal
I had such a good experience with the cheeseburger pizza at Castaways in Chillicothe, that I thought whenever that option is available on a CSN, I’d try it and get a little cheeseburger pizza war going. And in the first round of Richard’s on Main vs. Castaways in Chillicothe, Castaways wins. The first thing that I didn’t care for on the pizza was that it was topped with pickles. I don’t mind pickles on a cheeseburger, but they didn’t taste right to me heated up on a pizza, so I started picking them off. The next thing was the sauce. Instead of regular pizza sauce, it’s coated with their own creation of “mustard sauce.” The first couple of bites it tasted okay, but then it started leaving a bad aftertaste and after about half of the pizza was gone, I couldn’t eat anymore of it. The pizzas at Richard’s on Main are homemade and the crust was done to perfection and the cheese was fresh and sharp, so I bet the others styles are good. Personally I think they need to rethink this one though.
I have heard the food there is excellent, so I will give it another try further on down the road. The menu is diverse and they have some good offerings such as: Ribeye, Cajun Smothered Chicken Breasts, Grilled Tuna Steaks and Coconut Shrimp. They have a large selection of sandwiches including: a steak sandwich, boneless butterflied pork chop, a chicken strip BLT and a smothered beef sandwich. You can build your own burger from the three styles on the menu: a black angus burger, a vegetarian burger and a turkey burger. They also offer several styles of their own Horseshoe Sandwich. Monday through Friday there’s daily lunch and dinner specials available.
Cheeseburger Pizza Rating
One slice, the pizza there is homemade and I’m sure the other selections are great, but they need to go back to the drawing board for this one, in my opinion. Castaways is the leader so far in the cheeseburger pizza entries here at MBIP!
Richard’s On Main
311 Main St.
Peoria
309-674-8007
Further Reading: facecrack, Foursquare and Insider Pages.
