Live, from East Peoria, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger with this week’s host, The Burger Barge and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, over the river and through the woods to East Peoria, please welcome, this week’s host, The Burger Barge!
Hold on to your socks if you’re wearing any because we are off and cruising at a mind-rattling speed of 21 miles per hour. If you’re not equipped with socks, just hang on to your ankles. If you don’t have ankles...well, then just hit yourself over your head with your crutch and shut the fuck up.
Signpost ahead...
The Burger Barge! I love the ramshackle look of this place!
This shot is brought to you by the letter, “R.” As in, “Arrr matey!”
Let’s walk the plank downstairs...
And head inside and see what’s happening at The Burger Barge on this fine Saturday evening.
Very colorful and festive in here, as always. This place has a fun atmosphere like you’re always walking in to a party. It’s close to closing time, so the crowd has thinned out for the evening.
The tiki bar is empty, so there’s plenty of places to sit...hey, I see a familiar face behind the bar...
It’s Andre, who was on bartender duty last year when we came here for a cheeseburger. Good to see him again!
There’s money and all kinds of hidden treasures buried under the laquer of the bar top. I wonder how many drunken people have tried in vain to grab that dollar bill.
Here’s the view of the colorful bar from where I sit. I’ve just placed my order with Andre, so let’s take a walk around the Burger Barge and see what’s shaking in here.
This is the main dining room, as I said, it’s getting close to closing time so most of the tables are empty. About an hour ago, I bet it was jammed in here.
As I noted last year, patrons can draw on the napkins and pin them up on the wall in here. Let’s take a look at some of them, shall we?
There’s some nice drawings on them, people really put forth some effort into this. I like the one with the hula girl on it.
This one is one half religious, one half suicidal, in my humble opinion.
“Jingle Balls?” From 2012? They really keep these things up for quite a while!
Wow, someone really spent some time on this one. But the note that the Burger Barge “has its eye on me,” has left me a little paranoid.
Quit staring at me, asshole!
Let’s go check out this room over here.
There’s booths, tables and colorful lights and it overlooks...
This beach area complete with umbrellas and multi-colored picnic tables.
There’s a nice view of the Illinois River out here. But I’m more of an inside guy, so let’s retreat back inside where we have a roof over our heads.
Here’s the kitchen area where all the magic happens at The Burger Barge.
Check out the assembly line of burgers waiting to be served to hungry diners. Speaking of hungry diners, let’s go back to the bar and see what’s happening with our food order...
I love it when you come back to your seat and your dinner is waiting there for you. Let’s dig in!
I got two grilled shrimp skewers and they look fantastic!
And they taste just as fantastic as they looked. The cocktali sauce has quite a kick and really compliments the grilled shrimp nicely.
I know this looks like a burger, but it’s not...
It’s a pork chop sandwich and it’s delicious. There’s just one little flaw and you can read about it in the review below. All in all another fun night at The Burger Barge. We’ll see you all tomorrow!
My Meal
You’d imagine a place called The Burger Barge would have an ample supply of burgers on the menu and they do. There’s 18 different varieties of burgers on the menu with toppings ranging the gamut from grilled pastrami to guacamole to grilled pineapple. In addition to the wide selection of burgers, there’s also a large variety of other items on the menu. One such item is a pork chop sandwich called the “Pork-N-Noise” which is a pork chop sandwich topped with grilled onions, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and dock sauce. The pork chop was juicy and flavorful, but the bun wasn’t grilled and it wasn’t pillowy fresh. I always say that the bun can make or break a sandwich and while it didn’t totally break it, it did take it down a notch. I also got two grilled shrimp skewers, as recommended by bartender Andre and they were delicious and the cocktail sauce had a nice kick to it.
SNC Rating
Two and a half Galloping Gourmets—Every other time I’ve eaten there the bun was bakery fresh, so this was probably just an off night. The pork chop itself was very tasty as was the shrimp skewers.
The Burger Barge
1401 N. Main Street
East Peoria
309-694-9191
Related Posts: SNC @ Alpha Bravo, Castle’s Patio Inn and New Amsterdam.
Take me to the river,
And wash me down,
Won't you cleanse my soul,
Put my feet on the ground.
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Bonus Burger Barge Art by Jaws the Cabbie!
Jaws the Cabbie sent in this Burger Barge art as his comment. Ha, now that’s a true Burger Barge! Thanks, Jaws!
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Today’s post was brought to you by Knuckles Pizza. Check them and all the other fine businesses helping to support this blog over at the MBIP Bucket List Page. Your Daily Random Linkage awaits you at the bottom of the that page as well!
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