Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse with special guest star, Nathalie Khoury and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, please welcome this week’s host, from over the river and through the woods in East Peoria, Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse!
Alright, we’re getting a ride from a friend tonight and she should be here any second now...
And that second is here, let’s go greet this mystery driver...
It’s my friend Nathalie, who you all met on this soup road trip. She’s looking beautiful as always and it’s off we go to...
Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse in the Holiday Inn in East Peoria!
We’ll just head on in through the entrance here.
There’s a Taste of Fall celebration going on in here with Pumpkin Martini’s and Pumpkin Cheesecake. I wonder if Rupert Pumpkin will make an appearance during these festivities? I certainly hope so!
They have a large dining room, but Nathalie and I decided to sit up at the bar.
As you can see, it’s a circular bar all awash in cyan lighting. I really like the atmosphere up here.
We decided to sit down at the end of the bar.
And here’s bartender Jules serving up a bottle of Budweiser to start the evening off!
Seated next to us at the bar was Phil and Sally. I’ve known Phil since high school and it was great to see him again and trade some old war stories from back in the day!
They’ve got eight beers on tap behind the bar and it’s a nice selection of draft beer. And I’m still wondering every time when I take the taps shot, “Where the hell is Spike these days!”
Padded banquette booths are located behind the circular bar for comfortable dining.
And there’s more booths and dining tables outside of the bar. It’s a very large dining area in here.
There’s B.B. King with his baby Lucille hanging on the wall.
Check it out: an unplanned obligatory Marilyn Monroe mirror shot! I love it when that happens!
Here’s Steve and Kathy, I haven’t seen Steve since he was bartending at No Wake Zone and it’s good to see him again!
Meanwhile, back at the bar...
Dinner is served! I started out with a house salad...
And Nathalie got the Mediterranean Salad with grilled shrimp as her main course.
I haven’t had a steak in quite a while, so I got the Parmesan Crusted New York Strip along with an order of grilled onions to top it off.
Here it is all topped and ready to be eaten.
It’s so delicious. Really tender and the Parmesan crust adds a nice crispy and savory texture to the outside of the steak.
Nathalie loved her Mediterranean Salad and even wrote a special guest review of her meal, which you can read below!
Steve, the General Manager came out and said hello. He’s a real nice guy and said that Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse is doing great and they’re getting calls for franchise opportunities all over the country as well as outside of the states as well. Very cool!
After dinner, Phil introduced us to Chris, who lives in Perth, Australia! Chris is in town doing business and I told him about appearing on The Morning Show in Australia back when I was doing the 365 Bar Crawl blog. Very nice to meet him!
This was a wonderful Saturday Night out on the town and thanks to everyone at Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse for the great food and hospitality and to Nathalie for the great company for the evening! I really enjoyed it! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
My Meal by Marty
I started out with the house salad which is a fresh bed of greens and vegetables with a zippy and tasty homemade Italian dressing topping it off. For the main course I got the Parmesan Crusted New York Strip steak. It was a really large portion (I couldn’t eat all of it) and very tender, succulent and seasoned and cooked to perfection. The outer crust of Parmesan gave it a nice crispy texture which played nicely off the tender and savory steak. I got an order of grilled onions to top the steak off and they were so buttery, rich and flavorful, they could be eaten alone and that's what I did with a portion of them! For a side dish I got the vegetable medley and that was the perfect compliment to the large slab of beef that overpowered the plate! It was a great meal and now here’s a special guest review, by my pretty dining companion for the evening, Nathalie!
My Meal by Nathalie
Hey MBIP family, I hope your Monday’s fabulous! This past Saturday I had the privilege of hanging out with our favorite, Marty! I was excited to be going to Johnny’s since I love the atmosphere, and know they make great drinks! The bartenders were so sweet, you could tell the manager loved his job, and the stories upon stories that Marty has to tell always make for a great time! On top of that, I had great food! I ordered the Mediterranean Salad, which is usually only on their lunch menu, but the staff was so awesome, they quickly prepared it for me, no hesitation! Having roots from the Mediterranean region myself, I always appreciate the refreshing flavors. This salad (which easily could fill a person up on its own) was made of a mixture of peppers, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, onion slices, and of course feta cheese! (Cause what would a Mediterranean salad be without feta?) All of this on a large serving of crisp greens—so good! I decided to top my salad off with the garlic sauteed shrimp. It made the perfect combo—I will definitely be back to get it again and recommend you try it, too!
SN Rating
Three and a half Galloping Gourmets—Wonderful food, service and hospitality at Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse.
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