I thought that we’d go to Kenny’s Westside Pub for this week’s pizza entry. I’ve had his pizza and like everything else on the menu, it’s amazingly good. Last July I went to Kenny’s for a Saturday Night Cheeseburger episode and gave the owner, Sean Kenny a food challenge and asked him to make a cheeseburger that wasn’t featured on the menu. He happily took on the challenge and the “Marty Womburger” was born! Check out that post here.
So tonight I’m going to see if Sean will take on another challenge, this time dealing with pizza. I love a good cheese pizza and since I can be fairly cheesy myself, I’m going to challenge Sean to make me an original cheese pizza at Kenny’s. Let’s go and see if he’s up for the challenge!
I'm meeting some friends tonight and I anticipate drinking more than a few beers, so I've called Elite Taxi to shuttle me back and forth. And now in this Warren Zevonesque moment, my ride's here.
And if you've been following the blog for a while, you'll recognize our driver, Captain Kirk. Good to see him again and he told me that they've been crazy busy lately.
Here we are at Kenny's Westside Pub on Farmington Road. Let's get inside and out of this cold and snow.
As soon as I enter Kenny's I'm welcomed by Peter, check out our matching Kenny's Westside Pub shirts. It's always best to wear the Kenny's colors when you come here.
There's a familiar face behind the bar...
It's Sean Kenny, the owner of this fine establishment. Love the Haddad's t-shirt! I asked him about the pizza challenge and he happily accepted. He just asked for a little time to think up a recipe. That sounds perfect as it'll give me time to have a few more beers. Yes, I started drinking before I got here. Hey, it's Sunday, what do you expect?
This is Brian and Edward who were chatting with Sean at the bar before I interrupted with my camera. They're father and son and they are regulars here at Kenny's.
And here's a familiar face, Chris Herold, the former owner of Pizza Inn. We last saw him on the closing night of that restaurant back in September of last year. He said he misses Pizza Inn but he's been keeping busy. Great to see him again.
I told you I was meeting some friends tonight and here's two of them, Kathy and Steve. They've secured a booth, so let's settle in here.
We're meeting one other friend, but she's running late so we've ordered an appetizer of the pretzel bites with homemade cheese sauce.
I can't even describe how tasty these deep-fried pretzel nuggets are, you just need to get here and try them for yourself.
And here's the aforementioned friend who showed up a tad late, Clare. Here she is posing with her patent-pending, "put the fucking camera down already" look on her face.
Right after I took Clare's photo, this fellow hollered out to me and struck a pose for the MBIP camera. His name is TJ and he told me he reads the blog every day. I always love to hear that and I hope you're reading it right now, TJ! Great to meet you!
Alright, I've been told that Sean is ready, time to let this food challenge begin!
Here's Sean with the flat bread crusts. In addition to the special cheese pizza, we're also getting his famous Margherita pizza.
And the action begins with the cheese pizza which he's creating for us on the spot. He's starting out by ladling some melted cheese on the crust.
Here he's mixing tomato sauce with the cheese. It's kind of psychedelic looking!
The tomato sauce and melted cheese are mixed together and they will serve as the base for this cheesy pizza pie.
Sean's doing double duty and is making the Margherita pizza at the same time as he's creating the cheese pizza. I'm getting a little dizzy watching all this action...of course I've had over six beers at this point, so that may have something to do with it.
Fresh-grated mozzarella cheese and sun-ripened Roma tomato slices are added to this pie. I'm half tempted to eat this pizza raw it looks so good!
And now we jump back to the cheese pizza as Sean adds some of the Mozzarella to this pie.
And here's four more varieties of cheese to be added to the mix: cheddar, habanero, Swiss and American cheese.
Sean's chopping up the slices...
And here they are added to the top of this pie. That's six different kinds of cheeses on this pizza if you haven't been keeping score.
And it's into the oven they go.
And after a quick beer at the bar, Sean calls me back to the kitchen so I can get photos of the pies as they come out of the oven. Wow, the Margherita looks amazing!
The Margherita gets chopped into squares and note how every square has it's own tomato.
The final step is to add fresh basil on top, this pizza is a true work of art!
Now the cheese pizza is getting sliced. Note how he's slicing this into rectangles, Sean told me that this is "Agatucci's style slices" and he's cutting them as a tribute to the fine folks at Agatucci's which is where we started this pizza tour. Very cool!
Oh my God, it looks amazing, time to get back to the booth and sample these pies!
What a delicious looking double dose of pizza pies!
Dinner is served!
Cheers!
The cheese pizza is so good. All six of the cheese really blend together well with the tomato sauce and the flat bread crust provides a really nice texture to the mix. This pizza is going to be an "off menu" item, so if you want to try it you need toto ask for the "Cheesy Marty Pizza," the perfect title for a cheesy pizza named after a cheesy guy!
The Margherita pizza is amazing as it always is in here. What a great pizza dinner! Thanks to Sean for accepting another food challenge and delivering some unbelievably tasty pizza pies!
On my way out I met Nilah and Jim who own The Basket Case bar on Main Street. They invited me to stop by, so I think that'll be this Thursday's two beers destination. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood!
There wasn't much pizza left over for the next day cold pizza test, in fact we had to make an effort not to eat it all so I could sample it cold.
Aaaah, cold pizza, the perfect hangover food! Thanks again to Sean and everybody at Kenny's and to Steve, Kathy and Clare for joining me on week number five of the MBIP Year Of Pizza. We'll see you all tomorrow!
Pizza Rating
Four Chef Boyardees—Kenny’s is the first establishment to score four Chef Boyardees, the Margherita pizza is great and the Cheesy Marty Pizza (it’s an “off menu” item, but just like the Marty Womburger, anyone can order this) really put it over the top! They have other styles of pizza at Kenny’s, but I highly recommend both of these!
Kenny’s Westside Pub
2016 West Farmington Road
West Peoria
309-676-1693
Related Posts: MBIP YOP @ Dave’s Pizza, Peoria Pizza Works, Sugar and Agatucci’s.
