Live from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night with tonight’s host, The Fish House and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher! And now, please welcome this week’s host of this special holiday edition of “Saturday Night”, The Fish House!
Seeing as this is the "Saturday Night" edition of Christmas week, I thought I'd bring along some holiday gifts to The Fish House for bartenders, Paul and Emily and Fish House owner, Justin. I chose four festive holiday tape dispensers because nothing says, "Merry Christmas" quite like a festive holiday tape dispenser. And I got four, because traveling with odd numbered presents is a bad luck thing just waiting to happen, so we'll present the fourth holiday dispenser to a lucky random person at the bar.
Okay, we are off and rolling up Main Street towards the Fish House. There's those Courthouse lIghts that we featured yesterday.
Here we are at The Fish House. Check out the Christmas lights underneath the sign. Nice!
Emily saw me taking pictures outside and greeted me at the door! She's looking pretty as always!
Here we are in the bar area of The Fish House, it's got to be Peoria's darkest bar and one of my favorite places in town.
Emily and veteran Fish House bartender Paul join forces and serve me up the first ice-cold beer of the evening!
Time to start handing out the presents...
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in here and I feel just like Santa Claus after presenting Paul and Emily their festive tape dispensers. Now time to hand out the extra one to someone at the bar...
Well, this was easy, since it's near closing time, the only one at the bar is Jacob, who's a server here and was hanging out after his shift was over. Merry Christmas and Happy Festive Tape Dispenser to you, Jacob!
Another part of this festive holiday Saturday Night post features a challenge I threw out to Paul and Emily and the challenge is to make a special MBIP holiday drink that will be served up during the holiday season at The Fish House. They both agreed and here's Emily mixing up her Christmas concoction. The ingredients to the drinks are a holiday secret that only those of us at the bar know and I'll never tell! I'm the judge and I'll be picking which drink will be The Fish House's holiday seasonal drink for the year! Can you feel the excitement in the air? If not, just pretend like you do.
She pours the specialty drink...
And here it is, garnished with a cinnamon stick. Time to drink it up...
It's really good and it's got a kick to it and a bit of a peppermint taste to it.
And now Paul's up to bat. Shake, shake, shake!
He pours his holiday mixture out...
And adds a cherry on top! It doesn't get much more festive than that!
Before I drink it, I must have a palette cleanser of a sip of Budweiser.
Wow, Paul's really has a kick to it and is very tasty. I need to take a walk and try to decide who's the winner here. This isn't an easy decision and they both rose to this holiday drink challenge in a marvelous fashion!
There's a lounge area with tables and chairs behind the bar. I love the dark candlelit vibe of this place.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm here really near closing time and the dining room is pretty well cleared out. Check out the Christmas tree over there, all pretty and sparkly!
The red bows and candles add to the holiday spirit in here.
Okay, back to the bar and time to pick the winner of this year's Holiday Drink Contest at The Fish House. It wasn't an easy decision, but the winner is...
Emily! Both drinks were fantastic, but Emily's had more of a Christmas flavor to it...and okay, I wanted to take another picture of her! Stop in at The Fish House and order up the festive holiday drink that we're going to call, "The Emily," it'll put you right in the festive spirit of the season!
Well, I've worked up quite an appetite and it looks like dinner is just about to be served, talk about your perfect timing!
Last Saturday, MBIP pal and Contributing Writer, Scott Turley put up a post where he tried some alligator bites at Meadows Avenue Tap and I commented that I had never see those on a menu. Well, tonight while perusing The Fish House menu, what did I happen to see, but "Fried Alligator Bites!" So I ordered those and to complete this Scott Turley feast, I also got the French Fried Onion Rings in his honor. Thanks to Emily for snapping this behind the bar photo of the meal.
The meal came with three dipping sauces, Thai, marinara and ketchup. Okay, time to dig in!
I really liked the Fried Alligator Bites, you can read more about them in the review below, but they have a taste somewhere between beef and chicken. A really unique tasting appetizer and I liked them best dipped in the spicy Thai sauce.
The onion rings were really tasty too. They're homemade, savory and spectacular!
And as the "last call" was getting close, Tony from Khaki Jack's showed up and Justin came out from doing duty back in the kitchen. Great to see both of them!
Here's Justin with his festive holiday tape dispenser. Ho, ho and ho!
As the evening comes to an end, all the lights are shut off, but the Christmas tree beams into the night.
Just before they lock the doors I fired off a holiday obligatory mirror shot to end the evening on a proper note. We'll see you all tomorrow!
My Meal
Last Saturday, MBIP pal and Contributing Writer, Scott Turley put up a post about going to Meadows Avenue Tap in East Peoria for five days in a row and getting the daily special every day. One of the days he got an order of alligator bites and I had never seen that offered on a menu anywhere. Then I was perusing the Fish House menu and what’s there on the appetizer list but “Fried Alligator!” They also have “French Fried Onion Rings” on that list and Scott’s an onion ring aficionado, so I decided to order both and have a holiday-themed Scott Turley feast!
The Fried Alligator is served in small bites and is perfect for sharing. The bites are lightly breaded and the taste is somewhat between beef and chicken with a little bit of spicy tang coming through. It comes with marinara sauce, but I also got Thai sauce to dunk them in and I preferred that as a dipping sauce for the gator bites. The onion rings are homemade with a light, golden batter covering the onion rings. Tasty and savory and I used good old ketchup to dip them in.
My Fish House Holiday Drink
Paul made a valiant effort and his drink was superb, but Emily’s had a little bit more of a Christmas flavor to it and the cinnamon stick took it over the top for me! Stop in and order "The Emily" this holiday season at The Fish House!
SN Rating—The Meal
Three and a quarter Galloping Gourmets—Loved finding something new and tasty to eat via the Alligator Bites and the onion rings were great!
SN Rating—The Holiday Drink
Four Drunken Santas—Stop in this holiday season and order "The Emily,” it’ll put a happy glow on this festive season!
The Fish House
4919 N University Street
Peoria
309-691-9358
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Related posts: Saturday Night @ The Fieldhouse Bar & Grill, Jim’s Bistro and The Chilli Bowl.