Live, from Peoria Heights, it’s Saturday Night, starring this week’s host, Hearth with special musical guest, The Navy-Marine Club and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, please welcome this week’s host, from restaurant row in Peoria Heights, Hearth!
Alright, here we are on this week’s Saturday night adventure in front of Hearth on restaurant row in Peoria Heights. My friend, Amber turned me on to this place a few months ago and we had lunch here when the blog was on hiatus. I made a mental note to return here for dinner and now since I’m feeling a little mental tonight, I thought I’d return and here we are. See how these things work out? I love it!
Two doors stand between us and this Saturday night, so let’s put one foot in front of the other in a forward motion fashion and let this evening begin!
Baboom! We successfully walked through the doors and here we are at the bar. This is perfect!
As you can see, this is one well-stocked bar!
Here’s three of the friendly staff at Hearth, from left: Travis, Steph and Chris. I was floored when I found out that Travis is the son of my old friend and legendary musician, Rockin’ Billy! Rockin’ Billy’s out in Las Vegas these days and his current band is Rockin’ Billy and the Rhythm Riot. Check them out at their facecrack page right here.
Travis created most of the signature cocktails here at Hearth and here he is mixing up the most popular cocktail of the house, the Old Fashioned Wisdom. This drink is made with Wiser’s Rye Whiskey, simple syrup, black walnut bitters and it’s muddled with an orange slice and served with a cinnamon stick stirrer.
Here’s the finished cocktail and it tastes even better than it looks! Wonderful work, Travis!
At this point the owner of Hearth, Hugh magically appeared behind the bar! Hugh told me he opened up Hearth a year and a half ago after working in the liquor industry for over 32 years. He said that opening up the restaurant was somewhat scary, but that so far its worked out well. He then took me over to a sign in the front of the restaurant...
This is an antique sign for Leisy Beer, which was a Peoria brewed beer back in pre-prohibiton times. This is just one of three Leisy signs still in existence. You can read more about Leisy Beer and the collectible items from the brewery here.
There’s a couple of tables opposite the bar if you want to dine in the bar area, but don’t want to sit at the bar.
The tables face this massive wall of wine that fills the wall near the bar.
The walls are covered with wooden pieces from cases of liquor that Hugh had collected from his 32 years in the liquor industry. Very cool!
This table is at the head of the dining room and faces this fancy and colorful breakfront.
And here’s the comfortable and inviting dining room behind the front table. Check out the art work on the walls...
The art and photography that decorate the walls of Hearth are all from local artists in the Peoria area. Some of the artists include, Craig Stocks, Doug and Eileen Leunig, David Vernon and Hiram Toraasson.
There’s another dining room tucked away behind this door...
It’s filled with round tables and lots more art and photography on the walls. Meanwhile...
Back at the bar it looks like it’s about time for dinner!
I started off the dinner with a cup of the roasted tomato soup and it came along with some cheesy homemade biscuits! A wonderful start to this Saturday night dinner!
For my main course I got two appetizers: The lamb meatballs and an order of crab cakes. You can read about the meal below, but for now let me just tell you that it was delicious! The food here is wonderfully prepared, farm-fresh and a real treat. If you haven’t been here, do yourself a flavor...I mean favor and try it out!
After dinner I got to meet the man who prepared our meal, Chef Seth! I met Seth when Amber and I had lunch here and it was great to see him again!
And I thought for dessert I’d have another Old Fashioned Wisdom! Because you just can’t get enough wisdom and whiskey in life! So drink it up while you can, people! One of the really great things about Hearth is...
That it’s just about a three minute walk to one of my favorite places in the world, the Navy-Marine Club on Seiberling Avenue! Let’s stop in for a couple of Saturday night post dinner beers!
There’s a nice lively crowd in here, let’s go in and get settled in at the bar.
Here’s one of my favorite bartenders and people in the world, Mark serving up the first beer of the evening!
This quartet of people are having some laughs at this corner of the bar, let’s go over and meet them...
These are really fun and interesting people and we had a nice conversation through the evening, from left they are: Brittney, Bob, Daniel and Sheryl. It was great to meet them!
Jim is a regular here at the club and he was holding down this end of the bar. Wonderful to see him again!
Bob’s putting on some tunes for the evening. He chose a great soundtrack for the evening.
I was told that this couple across the bar had traveled quite a distance to come here, so I went over and introduced myself to them...
This is Steve and Karen and they’ve come all the way from Rhode Island to visit Peoria and the Navy-Marine Club! Very cool! Steve told me he wants to fit me with cement shoes and toss me in the Illinois River and while I passed on that bit of excitement, I appreciate his generous offer of supplying me with sturdy footwear! That doesn’t happen very often and it made the night so very special!
As the night wore on, the club is close to closing time and Lisa and Scott came in for a nightcap. After talking to Scott I found out that years ago he worked at V.O.P.’s with my friend Lisa and he knew my brother, Jim. And of course we all know that we must cue this up now!
Okay, it’s almost midnight, Mark’s getting ready to close so I need to cash in this chip and call it a night! Thanks to all at Hearth and the Navy-Marine Club for a fun, tasty and thirst-quenching Saturday night on the town! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
I chose a trio of appetizers for my Saturday night meal and they did not disappoint. I started off with a cup of the tomato soup. Hugh had told me that they roast the tomatoes for the soup and it gives it a smoky and somewhat sweet flavor. It’s really rich and tasty. The soup came along with cheese biscuits and they really stole the show! They were delightfully fluffy and flaky with bits of green onion speckled inside of them which added a nice savory flavor to the mix.
I got two more appetizers for the main course, the Lamb Meatballs with Red Pepper Sauce and the Creole Crab Cakes. The lamb meatballs were tender and succulent and the red pepper sauce was the perfect and somewhat spicy accompaniment for them. The crab cakes were crispy on the outside and filled with tasty crab meat on the inside. The Creole Remoulade sauce that floats beneath the cakes really tops off this dish in a rich and creamy way and it was delicious!
SN Rating
Three and a half Galloping Gourmets—A wonderful dinner at Hearth and the signature cocktail, Old Fashioned Wisdom washed down the entire meal in a spectacular fashion!
Hearth
4604 N Prospect Road
Peoria Heights
309-686-0234
facecrack page
Navy-Marine Club
1310 E Seiberling Avenue
Peoria Heights
309-682-8100
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