Live from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger, starring this week’s host, Kenny’s Westside Pub and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, directly from the FRED entertainment district on Farmington Road, please welcome this week’s host, Kenny’s Westside Pub!
Here we are at Kenny's Westside Pub. I love the classic roadhouse look of the outside of this place.
I also love that the kitchen is open late, seven nights a week here. Wednesday through Saturday you can get food all the way up to three in the morning and Sunday through Tuesday food is served till two in the wee hours.
Let's go in the green tinted entrance and see what's happening in here tonight.
Check out the Guinness harp in the front window, cool!
I love how this place just opened up in March and yet it feels like a classic pub that's been here forever.
Here's owner and host of the pub, Sean Kenny. You can read about Sean and the origins of this pub in the first post we did when we visited Kenny's back in April, just click here to check that out.
A bottle of Budweiser is served up by Sabré, the pretty and friendly bartender on duty tonight.
On the first Friday of every month Kenny's features a "First Friday Firkin," and they untap a limited edition cask of beer. This month it was this cask of Dragon's Milk which is nestled on top of the bar. All you craft beer enthusiasts should mark your calendar for this first Friday, monthly event at Kenny's.
These three pretty women were seated nearby the Dragon's Milk cask and they quickly made me forget all about First Friday Firkin. From left: Kirbie, Shawna and Amy. They were curious about my blog, so hopefully they're tuned into it right now!
Josh, A.J. and Eric were seated up in the front of the bar at one of the booths that line the wall and were enjoying some of the homemade creations on Kenny's menu.
Here's Nate and Brian who were singing the praises of Kenny's, Sabré and the food they were enjoying. You know what? I think it's time to eat!
Tonight's a first here at MBIP, because Sean has invited us back to the kitchen to see tonight's burger being created!
Sean stands next to the "hippie refrigerator" which is adorned with Grateful Dead stickers and other concert and musical mementos back here in the kitchen.
Sean and "Ice Cube" Eddie are plotting out tonight's burger. I gave them a unique challenge and asked them to create a special burger for the evening that readers of the blog could come in and order. After a couple minutes of discussion they flew into action.
Onions were chopped...
And then dipped into batter and deep fried to a golden brown.
Sean's chopping potatoes into fries, everything's fresh here, nothing is cooked from a bag, you gotta love that!
Here's the burger in mid creation. As it sizzles on the grill, Sean took the onion ring and is breaking an egg inside of it.
As the egg cooks inside of the onion ring, Sean then stuffs chopped bacon on top of that. This is going to be one amazing burger!
If only this was a scratch and sniff blog, you'd be in heaven, it looks and smells fantastic!
Okay, the onion ring, bacon and egg topper is placed on the burger and it's being removed from the griddle.
The burger is placed in a kaiser roll and Sean adds some condiments to the plate.
"Ice Cube" Eddie adds some seasoning to this bowl of "Frots," which is a mixture of freshly made french fries and the house Tater Tots, which are a specialty unto themselves.
We're out of the kitchen and back at the bar as Sean serves up the newest burger creation at Kenny's, which he told me is going to be called, "The Marty Womburger." I have a sandwich named after me in New York and now I have a cheeseburger named after me in West Peoria. Quite an honor! Now let's try the Marty Womburger out!
Let's take one look at this amazing plate of food before we dive in. Okay, enough's enough, let's try the Marty Womburger, I'm starvin' like Marvin over here!
Here I am in mid-attack! This burger is out of this world! So many flavors and textures going on, it blows your mind and your tastebuds. You can read more about it in the review, but do yourself a favor and stop in Kenny's and order the Marty Womburger. It's not on the menu yet, so you have to ask for it by name to get it. You won't be sorry, I think it's the best cheeseburger I've ever had!
After that fantastic dinner, Sean and I had a beer for dessert and relaxed outside at the front patio. This wasn't here last time and it's a great place to hang out and watch the world go by.
Tim was enjoying a drink out here, cheers!
As a parting gift, Sean gave me an official Kenny's Westside Pub t-shirt which is adorned with a Grateful Dead skull illustration. Thanks to Sean and everyone for a great night at Kenny's and for creating the best cheeseburger in the world, The Marty Womburger, stop by and ask for it by name to try it out. You won't be sorry! See you all tomorrow.
My Cheeseburger
Okay, I started this whole Saturday Night Cheeseburger thing on April 23rd, 2010 with my 365 Bar Crawl blog. I’ve continued it through the years, so it’s over three years of eating a cheeseburger every fucking Saturday night. And yes, some weeks it gets tiresome. This week it didn’t.
Sean Kenny, the owner of Kenny’s Westside Pub sent me this message on facecrack the other week:
So I decided to take him up on the offer and up the ante and see if he was up to a certain challenge. And the challenge was to make a special MBIP burger on the spot, I gave him no forewarning about this challenge. Well, to Sean’s credit, he didn’t blink and proceeded to march back to the kitchen at Kenny’s and whip up the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had in my life. And I’m a guy who’s eaten a cheeseburger every Saturday for over the last three years!
The burger he created was a hand pattied, half pound burger topped with their special habanero jalapeño jack cheese, a hand battered onion ring with a fried egg cooked into it and then topped with fresh chopped bacon. The burger was then placed inside a bakery fresh, grilled kaiser roll and I don’t know adjectives to describe how mind-blowingly tasty this cheeseburger is. Between the spiciness of the cheese, the tasty crunch of the onion ring and bacon, the smooth egg yolk intermingling with the delicious burger, it’s a flat out wonderful attack on all your senses. Sean christened it, “The Marty Womburger,” so if you want to try it, stop in and ask for it by name. I guarantee it’ll be the best cheeseburger you’ve ever had.
Kenny’s is also known for their tasty appetizers including: Westside Pretzels which are deep fried and tossed in a ranch seasoning, fresh hand cut fries, Irish Nachos and their housemade Tater Tots. Sandwiches include the The Kilkenny Reuben, Reuben Burger which is a half pound burger topped with corned beef and saurkraut on a pretzel bun, and the O'Cramers Tenderloin. They also have wings and seven styles of flat bread pizza. All the food is made from scratch at Kenny’s and served up with pride and love. Check out the whole menu online.
Cheeseburger Rating
Four Wimpy’s! You don’t see this rating very often, stop in to Kenny’s and ask for the Marty Womburger and prepare to have your socks blown off your feet! It’s that good, the best cheeseburger in Peoria, New York and beyond, in my opinion, which when it comes to cheeseburgers, it isn’t that humble...in my opinion, that is!
Kenny’s Westside Pub
2016 West Farmington Road
West Peoria
309-676-1693
Further reading: Barstorming, Untappd and facecrack.
