I love the Lariat Club and thought that would be one half of tonight’s destination. The other half is a bar right around the block, City Heat. It’s been a while since we’ve been at either place and so it’s off we go into the darkness of the night!
And steering our way into the darkness is MBIP frequent sidekick and partner in crime, Amber, who volunteered to drive tonight. How cute and pretty does she look in that snuggly winter cap? Okay, off we go...
And here we are at the Lariat. I always kind of wish they had some neon or a sign on the front of the place, but I guess the nondescript look adds to the charm of the place. At least that's what we'll say for now. Let's go in, it's freezing as fuck-all out here!
Amber and I decided to sit at the bar, since there's plenty of seats available. I'll show you the dining room in a second, but first...
Time for some beers and Tim the friendly bartender happily serves them up! Tim said he's been working here close to two years now.
Our view of the back of the colorful bar here in front of the restaurant.
There's tables opposite the bar lined up along the front window for dining, drinking and massaging your ankles if you feel like it.
This is the dining room, which I think is the darkest dining room in Peoria.
There's lots of wood in here and it's got such an old-school charm to it. I love it!
But we're sitting at the bar because it's quicker to get a drink there, so let's return.
Every dinner here begins with a loaf of fresh bread and homemade butter. It's so good.
Amber and I got an appetizer of bacon-wrapped shrimp to start out with. It was so tasty. It's bacon and shrimp, how could that fail to dazzle your tastebuds?
We split the petite filet and it arrived on a warm plate and it's wrapped in more bacon! Hooray!
For the side dish we got an order of the au gratin potatoes which is a signature dish here.
The steak and the whole meal was so good. If you've never been to the Lariat, you need to go and check it out. It's one of Peoria's oldest restaurants and there's a reason they've been in business for so long: They kick ass when it comes to serving up delicious food!
In addition to steaks, The Lariat is famous for their after-dinner ice cream drinks. Amber and I decided to split a Brandy Alexander and here's Tim skillfully mixing the drink up.
And here's the finished product...
Here's Amber digging in...
There's a secret to drinking Brandy Alexander's here and I'll share it with you, as you're about halfway done, get a couple more shots of Brandy poured over the top. It really melts the ice cream and makes it so smoothy-good.
After we finished our dinner and dessert drink, we ran into Russ, who's a chef here and we've met in the past. He told us he was going around the corner to City Heat, so we thought we'd have a couple beers there too. And so, off we go...
To City Heat. It's impossible to get a good photo of this place and it's freezing as fuck out here, so this is as good as it gets.
There's a good crowd in here, but there's two seats at the end of the bar, so we moved down there and snagged them.
As soon as we sat down, Dawn quickly served us up a couple of beers. Dawn was bartending the last time I was in here and I remember her award-winning smile and friendliness. Great to see her again!
I love the Budweiser Clydesdale clock in here. Horses for courses.
This is the quartet of beers on tap.
I'm not sure what, "Hey Mo" means behind the bar there, but I'm definitely investigating that on my next trip here.
There's a pool table in the back room opposite the bar.
That's Russ racking the balls up, let's go see who his pretty pool partner is...
It's Samantha and after chatting with her I discovered she's the daughter of my friend Charlie and the niece of my friend Maggie! Get ready for an earworm, because it's time to cue this up!
Dig the pig, it's Butch's Pizza and the end of this post! Thanks to Tim and Dawn for being gracious and friendly bartenders at both establishments and to Amber for joining me for another fun-filled Thursday night journey. We'll see you all tomorrow!
The Lariat
2232 West Glen Avenue
Peoria
309-691-4731
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City Heat
2248 W. Glen Avenue
Peoria
309-691-7444
Related Posts: Beers @ New Amsterdam, Country Club and Tim And Shelly’s Second St. Bar And Grill.