Live, from Lacon, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night with your hosts, The Pizza Peel and The Coffee Hub, with special guest star, Travis Guthman and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. Now please welcome tonight’s hosts from Lacon, Illinois, The Pizza Peel and The Coffee Hub!
Last year we stopped in at The Pizza Peel for our 46th week of pizza on the MBIP Year Of Pizza tour and at the end, we were presented with this magenta envelope.
On the back is a sticker which says you must bring the envelope back in January, unopened, to receive a free gift inside. I’ve held on to it and since January is drawing to a close, I thought we’d better get back there for our Saturday night dinner and redeem it and see what kind of a prize we get. We’ll never know till we take off so...
It’s off we go! That’s Chillicothe ahead and it marks the halfway mark between Peoria and Lacon which takes about 27 minutes to get there from Peoria as noted in this post from last year.
And it only took us 23 minutes tonight as I broke the speed limit for a good portion of the drive and here we are in front of the familiar Pizza Peel yellow awning. Let’s go inside and let the evening begin!
It’s down the steep stairs we descend. These stairs are keeping the owner, Travis Guthman from visiting his own restaurant. Travis was involved in a bad car accident last summer and can’t make it down the stairs right now, so I’m getting my food to go and meeting Travis upstairs at the Coffee Hub, which is closed, but the owners, Mike and Julie gave Travis the keys so we could hang out after hours. How cool is that? Okay, let’s go down to The Peel and see what’s happening.
We’ll go through the double doors and take a look around...
There’s the table we sat at last time in here, but since we’re getting an order to go...
We’ll saunter up to the front counter.
And after sauntering forth, two pretty ladies, Adah and Faith came up to take the order. Adah told me that both she and her mom read MBIP on a daily basis and I love to hear that and thank them for reading! The order has been placed...
And here’s the guys back in the kitchen who will prepare it. In the meantime we’ll take a little look around.
There’s a familiar face over there in the dining room...
It’s Niki, who was our super-cute waitress last time we were in here. Chin up, Niki! (Inside joke alert!)
Next we ran into Tad who we also met last visit here. Tad has just returned from a local wet t-shirt contest.
Meanwhile, back at the counter, Faith is about to open up our prize envelope...
The excitement is mounting as she rips the envelope open...
A free order of Flatbread! We’ll save that for the next visit, a good excuse to come back here. Okay, our to-go order is ready and so it’s time to make tracks upstairs to...
The Coffee Hub! As I said earlier, the place is closed, but the lights are on because Mike and Julie, the owners have given the key’s to Travis so we could hang out in here after hours. Very nice!
Wow, it's cool being in here with the place totally empty, except for one person down there at the end of the tables...
There he is, Travis Guthman. It was good to see Travis again and he told me he had good news from his doctors and they have some plans for a surgery that will get him out of that wheelchair in the next couple of months. That was great news! Travis not only owns the Pizza Peel, he's also a talented photographer and you can check out his work right here: Travis Guthman Photography. And now it's time to break out the dinner!
I got the Italian Beef sandwich, but as they were packing it up, I thought they made the wrong thing because this looks like a Calzone. It turns out this is the Italian Beef, they serve it on flat bread at the Pizza Peel, which is something different for an Italian Beef sandwich.
Wow, this is so tasty! I got mine fully loaded with Mozzarella, giardineria peppers, marinara sauce and roasted red peppers. Great sandwich! You can read more about it in the review below.
I finished the sandwich so let's take a little look around The Coffee Hub after hours, I love the fact that we're in here after closing time.
You can celebrate your birthday here at The Coffee Hub and according to this illustration the celebration includes: The Red Balloon, cake, red candles and a brown checkered cone with red balls on top of it. Hooray!
I love the menus that are on rolls of brown butcher paper behind the front counter.
Up in the front of the store are items you can buy such as the areas biggest selection of vintage soda pop. And there's also a Coffee Hub t-shirt if you enter the place shirtless by some weird mistake. Remember: No shirt, no shoes...NO DICE! Know it, learn it, live it.
Oh Fudge! You can also get homemade fudge from Julie's Corner Store in here!
One very cool thing they do at The Coffee Hub is have an artist of the month in here and this month's featured artist is Tom Ruhland. You can read all about Tom on The Coffee Hub's facecrack timeline.
There's a whole wall of his photography and artwork in here, check it out as there's just one week left in this month and then a new artist will then take this space over.
Travis brought a gift for me and here it is. It looks like a poster or a maybe a giant cigarette...let's find out what it is!
Ha! It's a giganzo poster from a photo that Travis took of me the last time we met in here! Very cool and speaking of giganzo, look at that huge forehead! I need to start combing my hair down to hide that monstrosity! Thanks to everyone at The PIzza Peel and to Mike and Julie at The Coffee Hub for letting us hang out after hours and To Travis for the great conversation and for the poster! We'll see you all tomorrow!
My Meal
I had a sandwich this time at The Pizza Peel, but it’s a sandwich that could double for a full-fledged meal! It’s a real twist on an Italian Beef sandwich which is usually served on a hoagie roll. At The Peel, it’s served on toasted flat bread and it resembles a Calzone. I got mine fully loaded with Mozzarella, giardineria peppers, marinara sauce and roasted red peppers all mingling with the tender roast beef which is housed in the sturdy toasted flat bread. A really delicious Italian Beef sandwich done in an unusual and tasty presentation and style.
SN Rating
Three Galloping Gourmets—A great twist on a traditional sandwich, if you’ve had the pizza here, try one of these for something different!
The PIzza Peel
340 5th Street
Lacon, Illinois
309-246-7400
facecrack page
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The Coffee Hub
318 5th Street
Lacon, Illinois
309-554-9057
Related Posts: Saturday Night @ Sugar Wood-Fired Bistro, The Fish House and Amber’s Birthday Party.
Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!
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Bonus Pizza Peel Picture and Story From Max Cloat!
We met Max Cloat way back when the Pizza Inn had its last night of business. Max has recently had a connection with Travis and The Pizza Peel and he sent in a photo and this following story of his experience and here it is. Take it away, Max!
“My good friend Mandy gave me a pack of Pizza Peel toothpicks after she and her family had eaten there. She knows about my passion for toothpicks (and stickers), so she was nice enough to pass them on to me. I love the quality and packaging, so I emailed The Pizza Peel to find out where they get the toothpicks. I received a very nice reply from Travis, who promised to send me a batch. The attached photo is of what he sent.”
Very cool! Thanks for sending this in Max!