The other day on facecrack I put up a photo of the old Pepe Taco and it got a great reaction, over 250 likes and tons of comments on how people miss the place. Pepe Taco is gone, but there’s another fine local Mexican restaurant in the building. I did a post from there over a year ago and thought we’d revisit the place formerly known as Pepe Taco, which is now called Los Jimadores.
The building is the same, but it's been repainted and rechristened with the Los Jimadores name.
Always love to see neon in the windows and this is no exception.
Let's go in and see what's happening inside this locally-owned Mexican eatery.
They've redecorated in here, but you still get a bit of a nostalgic Pepe Taco flashback when you walk in the door.
Large sturdy wooden booths line both sides of the main dining room.
I love all the artwork on the walls in here and I found out that it was handpainted by a Mexican artist who's name is Eduardo Ortiz and is a friend of the manager of Los Jimadores, Lalo, who'll you'll be meeting soon.
I love the main dining room in here and it does bring back Pepe Taco memories, but behind this wall is something near and dear to my heart...
The bar! And there's plenty of seats, let's plop down in one and let this evening begin!
Here's Rudy "Bananas" serving up a housemade margarita. Wow, these things are served in glasses the size of a fishbowl!
More of the margarita glasses hover overhead at the bar.
They have a large and extensive menu here filled with Mexican delights, I just placed my order, so let's take a little look around in here.
This is the quartet of beers on tap at the bar.
Rudy has ventured to the other side of the bar and he's posing for the MBIP camera with Dane and Laura who told me they had a delicious Mexican dinner here tonight.
Lalo is the manager here at Los Jimadores, who I mentioned earlier in the post. Here he is posing with his favorite bird from the bar.
There's not only original art on the walls, but the tables in the dining room are handpainted as well. Very cool, hey check out the hot sauce on the table...
Tapatio hot sauce, Kelly McKinzie left a comment about this hot sauce at this week's pizza post. I love it when things come full circle like that here on MBIP!
This is the side dining room, which has been here since the Pepe Taco days.
Here's another view of the main dining room.
An impromptu birthday celebration just broke out, so I ran over with my camera.
There's the birthday girl to the right who's awarded a giant ice cream Sundae and a song.
Lalo leads the Los Jimadores singers in this birthday sing along. Lots of fun!
Meanwhile, back at the bar, dinner is served! I started out with an appetizer called, Queso Fundido. It's a warm cheese dip that has chunks of chorizo sausage mixed in and served with homemade tortilla chips. I've added some hot sauce and pepper to the mix.
This is so good! The cheese dip is served warm and it's creamy and very rich in taste. The savory and spicy chorizo sausage is the perfect foil for the richness of the dip and when you add in the crunch of the warm tortilla chip, this is one tasty appetizer.
Here's the main course for the evening, Chori Pollo, which is grilled marinated chicken breasts covered in cheese and chorizo sausage. It's served with a salad, rice and beans. I pretended the beans weren't there because beans are something I don't believe should be eaten.
Flour tortillas are served on the side, so I took took some of the cheese and chorizo covered chicken and some lettuce and made a soft taco out of the mix. This is really tasty, it's kind of like the dip with equal parts richness and spicy tastes going on at the same time.
I loved Pepe Taco's food, but it was more American Mexican food, this is the real deal at Los Jimadores, you should really stop in and try it out. It's great food in a super fun and friendly atmosphere. I miss Pepe Taco, but Los Jimadores has done a fine job of keeping Mexican dining alive here in Peoria.
Just as I finished my meal, Mark and Maggie came up and said hello. They told me they're regular readers of MBIP (which I truly appreciate) and it turns out that Maggie went to Bergan High School and we have lots of friends and acquaintances in common, including the aforementioned sombrero wearer, Matt Buedel and his wife Clare, who Maggie works with! Let's not waste any time and cue this song up! Wonderful to meet Mark and Maggie, really nice people and one of the great rewards of doing this blog is meeting people like them.
As I head out, Lalo, Rudy and Fransisco bid us a fond farewell.
And night has fallen on the place formerly know as Pepe Taco, which is now Los Jimadores. Adios amigos and we'll see you all tomorrow!
Los Jimadores
7723 N University St
Peoria
309-689-9930
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Related Posts: This Used To Be: Fleming Potter, Second Chance Nightclub and The Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery.
Thinking of you underneath the Mexican moonlight,
Thinking of you underneath the Mexican moon.
Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!
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MBIP Goes International, Baby!
The Guardian, which is a newspaper published in Britain put up a link to Bob Gordon’s post on GG Allin in a post on their website and we’d like to thank them for this international attention! Cheers to The Guardian and to Tim Jonze who wrote the post that the MBIP linkage is included in (fourth entry down), which is called, “Plop horror: rock's most shocking toilet-related incidents.”
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