I haven’t been to Meadows Avenue Tap since our Hot Dog Wars over a year ago. Recently Michael Starcevic invited me via facecrack to stop out there and since we both used to work at Fleming Potter together, I thought it would be fun to meet and catch up with him. And of course have a few beers as well, so it’s off to Meadows Avenue Tap we go!
I tried and tried to get a decent shot of the outside of the bar, but it's not lit up very well and this is the best I could do. You don't win them all and it's fairly cold out here. I do like the "baked" neon sign though! Okay, let's get inside and get warmed up!
Okay, now we're talking! Plenty of seats at the bar, lets go snag one and get settled in for the evening.
Sonja's the pretty and friendly bartender on duty and she said she remembers the post I did in here from the infamous Hot Dog Wars.
Speaking of food, it's Taco Thursday in here and you know what that means...
I'm going to have a taco!
It's tacolicious! Okay, of course I'm early, Michael won't be here for a while, so let's take a little tour of Meadows Avenue Tap.
There's a quartet of beers in the middle of the bar over here...
There's a half dozen down here at the end of the bar...
And a lone Fat Tire Tap stands at a attention and ready for service right over here.
The bottles behind the bar are lit up and they change color every few seconds...
See?
Okay, this is starting to induce an acid flashback and we already had one yesterday, so let's just move on along!
Tables and chairs line the wall opposite the bar.
There's a large room at the end of the bar with three state of the art dart machines lined up against the wall.
This is a shot from the back of that room. As you can see, this is one big bar!
Here's someone picking out some tunes on this newfangled jukebox. If anyone knows of a genuine old time jukebox in a bar, let me know, I'd love to get a photo of one.
A Budweiser neon guitar lights up this wall.
There's four pool tables over on this side of the bar...
A fifth table is tucked away in this corner over here.
Here's someone taking a shot at one of the tables. I turned off my flash so I wouldn't blind him.
They have a full kitchen here at Meadows Avenue Tap...
Here's the nightly specials...hey, they've got pizza here, looks like we'll be back to sample that for the MBIP Year Of Pizza tour!
Meanwhile, back at the bar...
Sonja's busy waiting on people down at this end...
And here's Michael Starcevic! It's been decades since we've seen each other when we both worked at Fleming Potter. Michael started working at Fleming Potter in 1967 and was there until they shut the place down in 2003. It was great to talk with him and catch up. We both agreed it would be great to have a Fleming Potter reunion some time.
Cheers from two Fleming Potter veterans. The night was wearing down and Michael left. As I was getting ready to call it a night...
I ran into Kevin Keyes. Kevin was a friend of my brother Jim and I've met his brother Dave. And now the two of us have met so all is well in the universe. We traded some brotherly stories and it was great to meet Kevin. I'm sure we'll be hanging out again, so look for him in future MBIP episodes! Last time I was here the condom machine in the bathroom was broken, let's go see if they've fixed it...
Ha! Kind of nice when things stay the same. We'll see you all tomorrow and hey, let's be careful out there!
Meadows Avenue Tap
2000 Meadows Avenue
East Peoria
309-694-0736
facecrack page
Related posts: Beers @ Castle’s Patio Inn, Kenny’s Westside Pub and Lucky’s Modern Dive Bar.