Just about a month ago I stopped in at Jan’s Tap for the MBIP “Two Beers” thingy and I met the owner Jan. The two of us started talking about the local legendary publisher, Nearby Nite Life Sam Mahony and she told me that she had some old issues of Nearby Nite Life stashed away somewhere. I asked her if she could dig some of them out and she said she would and I told her I’d come back to take a look at them. Well, tonight is that magical night. I also mentioned in that post that I discovered Jan’s Tap via Justin Glawe’s now retired Peoria Bar Review. Well, Justin’s back in P-town and we’re going to meet him there tonight. All we have to do now is to get going...

And here we are going, going...gone...into the night!

We're here at tonight's destination, Jan's Tap, let's go in and see what's happening in here.

Oh, oh...just a few steps in and I see a couple of familiar faces...

It's the aforementioned Justin Glawe along with Amber whom we've met at our outings with The All Smiles Dental Gang. Justin's back in town to work on a new project that we'll write more about as it progresses but you can check it out in the beginning stages by clicking right here. You should follow Justin's blog, I have a feeling it's going to evolve into something that Peoria's never seen before. Stay tuned for further updates, in the meantime...

It's time for a bottle of Budweiser and pretty and friendly bartender Kristy serves one up with a wonderful smile.

Here's my view of the back of the bar with the liquor bottles set up unlit, old school style.

The Saint Patrick's Day decorations are all up as you can see from this sign behind the pool table in the back room.

Here's another St. Patrick's Day decoration, a Budweiser shamrock balloon. Too rah loo rah ray!

Shamrocks hang over the bar, intermingling with the Cubs lights that illuminate the place.

Here's a long-shot of the wooden bar that's been here for a long, long time yet it still maintains a youthful polish. Shine on you crazy bar.

Jan just happens to call in to the bar at this point and I have Kristy remind her that she needs to bring some copies of Nearby Nite Life to the bar...

And through the magic of the internet...BABOOM!...here's Jan with a copy of Nearby Nite Life. It's been a couple of decades since I've seen a copy of this legendary newspaper.

And Jan's brought a whole stack of them! Let's take a gander at some of them.

Here's an issue with Jan's Tap as the cover story back in 2007.

A classic Nearby Nite Life Sam Mahony photo: Tongues out, drinks up and it kind of gives you a hangover just looking at it.

Ray LeRoy lived on through his humor column in Nearby Nite Life. Even after he died, Sam just continued to rerun his old columns over and over. Dead Man Joking!