We’re up to week number five on this chicken wing tour and it’s time to hit a place that’s familiar ground on the MBIP food tours, The Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub. We went there for both the tenderloin and the pizza tour and I’ve heard that they serve up some mean wings, so this is the trifecta food visit for the Norwood Pun ‘N’ Grub! And we’ve got a couple guest stars showing up today, Marie Blackburn, who originally introduced us to the Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub back on the tenderloin tour is going to meet us there and there’s a rumor that her husband Alan might just show up as well. So let’s make tracks to Norwood and begin our fifth week of chicken wings! Huzzah!
And we’re off! The blue sky is puncuated with plenty of clouds to hide that rotten sunshine, always love to see that!
Here we are at The Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub, a familiar MBIP food tour stop!
Let’s go inside and let this fifth week of chicken wings take flight!
There’s a decent crowd at the bar, but I spy a seat front and center, let’s snag it and get settled in.
Here’s the view of the back of the bar from my perch. The checkered black and white flags are part of the car racing motif in here, but I prefer to think of them as Cheap Trick flags. It’s just the way my mind works, I hope that’s okay with you, because I really want you to want me!
Pretty bartender Dara serves up the first beer of the day and it turns out that Dara is not only the bartender, she owns the joint!
The couple next to me told me to go back and pose with Dara behind the bar and I always do what I’m told, so here I am posing with Dara behind the bar!
And here’s the couple that took the photo, LIssa and Tom. Tom’s showing off his flip phone after I showed him mine, always like to meet a fellow flip-phone buddy!
As you can see they have a great selection of bottled beers here at the bar.
This was a pleasant surprise, Holly who bartends at the Owl’s Nest came up and said hi. It was great to see her and she’s certainly looking cute, we last saw her when we went to The Owl’s Nest back in July of 2013. Holy shitballs, that was almost two years ago! I told Holly we’d stop back soon, so stay tuned for that!
There’s a pool table situated back behind the bar.
Circular tables are lined up in a row directly behind the bar.
Beak was seated at one of the tables and he said he’d only pose for the MBIP camera if Dara would be in the phot and she happily obliged this request. This is one friendly place!
Here’s the specials for the month of June. Dara told me they change these up on a monthly basis, so tomorrow you can stop in and see the specials for July...it’s July tomorrow? How the fuck did that happen? It seems like only yesterday I was telling you how much I fucking hate winter and now it appears summer is getting close to being half over. As I always say, “Fun flies when you’re having time!”
Rick (on the right), called me over and said we have a mutual friend in common and that friend is Jim Borho, who I’ve been pals with since high school and the two of us certainly put the “high” in high school! I don’t see Jim a lot anymore, but he did make an appearance at The First Annual MBIP Bowling Party. Here’s Rick posing with Beak.
As I made my way back to the bar I ran into today’s special guest stars, Alan and Marie Blackburn! As I said in the introduction, Marie is the one who introduced us to the Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub over 18 months ago and it was great to see her again and to meet Alan. We had a beer and a nice chat and then...
Chris, who’s the chef here came and took our order.
And through the miracle of these here interwebs here’s our appetizer that we ordered to whet our whistle for the chicken wings, an order of their homemade onion rings. These are some of the best in the area and I hope Scott Turley, who’s the MBIP onion ring aficionado is seeing this! You need to try this, Scott, if you haven’t already!
I dipped mine in hot sauce and they are so good. The batter is light and spicy and deep-fried to perfection, kind of like Syd Barrett’s brain!
Chef Chris said I could come back to the kitchen and watch him prepare the chicken wings we ordered.
Both Marie and Alan got boneless wings and Chris is preparing these right now.
Chris told me one key to the boneless chicken wings is the flour that they’re dredged in. This is a seasoned flour that is constantly sifted and has a lot of seasonings blended into it. He told me that they also use this for the onion rings.
Here he is getting ready to put them into the deep fryer...
Whoosh!
Here’s the sauce area for when the wings are taken out of the fryer.
Okay, we’re back at the bar and here’s Chris serving the wings up!
Marie got the boneless mild wings...
Alan got the garlic butter boneless wings, wow, look at that pool of garlic butter in the bowl!
And I got traditional bone-in wings, slathered in “Crazy Sauce.” Chris told me that the “Crazy Sauce” is a mixture of several of the chicken wing sauces blended together to make one flavorful and powerful sauce. Crazy!
And now we enter that all important cooling process where we have a good excuse to order up another beer!
I sampled both Marie’s and Alan’s boneless wings and they were really tasty, but I’m happy I ordered the Crazy Wings, they were really spicy and tasty and crazy-ass good!
Weekly bones and napkins shot!
Thanks to everyone at the Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub for great hospitality and food and to Marie and Alan for hanging out on this fifth week of chicken wings, it was a blast! Cheers from the three of us and we’ll see you all tomorrow!
Chicken Wing Rating
Three And a Quarter Wings guitar picks.
I usually don’t eat boneless chicken wings, but it’s nice that they have that ordering option here for those that aren’t a fan of “bone-in” chicken wings. The boneless wings I sampled that Marie and Alan ordered were really tasty and good. But this rating is based on my bone-in order of the Crazy Chicken Wings. These wings had variety of spices and tastes going on and were really good chicken wings! They have a large variety of flavors to sample, but I highly recommend you try this one out when you visit the Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub! And don't forget to order the onion rings!
Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub
1503 N. Norwood Blvd.
Peoria
309-966-4099
Related posts: Twelve Weeks Of Wings @ A World Of Wings, The River Side Cafe in The Embassy Suites Hotel, Kenny’s Westside Pub and Agatucci’s.