Last Saturday night I met three women in the parking lot of the Fish House—hey it’s one of the perks of doing this blog! One of them (Sheila) told me she was one of the owners of a coffee shop in Wyoming, Illinois and invited me to stop by and check it out. I told her I had never been to Wyoming, Illinois and she said I should definitely stop by as it’s just a short trip from Peoria. So I thought that today we’d take a little road trip there.

I also thought this could be the start of a new series here on MBIP (as if we don’t have enough ongoing themes happening here already, but hey, we can always use a new one!) I don’t drink coffee, I had one sip of it when I was about twelve and hated it and never drank it again. There’s quite a few coffee shops in and around Peoria and I’ve decided to go to them and ask them to fix me a coffee drink that might appeal to a non-coffee drinker and try it out. Maybe I’ll become a full-fledged coffee drinker when all of this is over, if not, well, it’s something to do! And so let’s go make like Linda Richman and start this maiden voyage of MBIP’s Coffee Talk! Talk amongst yourselves as we make our way to the MBIP Mobile!

And it’s off to Wyoming, Illinois we go. Nice to see lots of clouds in the sky guarding us from that nasty sunshine! Hate the sunshine! It’s just too damned bright! And sunny! Ecch!

Hey, Sheila didn’t lie, it was just a short 40 minute trip and here we are at Wyoming, Illinois, population 1400!

And there’s One Eleven Coffee right over there, that was easy to find! And it’s an impressive building!

Before I went in I saw Sydney and Emily eating lunch at an outside table from One Eleven and asked them how it was and they said the food was excellent. Sydney and Emily told me they live in Kewanee, Illinois and when I asked them how they heard about One Eleven Coffee, they said, “Everybody’s talking about it.” Well, it looks like this is the place to be then!

So let’s go in...but first check out the hippy, trippy, blurry obligatory front door mirror shot and I’m not even high on acid! I Love it when that happens!

Wow, this is so cool in here! The brick walls and wooden floors are amazing and the bare bulb lighting create a classic coffee shop atmosphere.

Here’s the three owners of One Eleven Coffee, from left: Melissa, Sheila and Stacy. They’re super-friendly and probably three of the prettiest coffee shop owners in the universe! Great to see Sheila again and to meet Melissa and Stacy!

As you can see, you’re not limited to just coffee in here, they have a full menu of drinks, food and dessert goodies. I placed my luncheon order and now let’s take a little tour of One Eleven Coffee while lunch is being prepared.

Some people would look at this front “Friends” corner table and think of this, personally I prefer to think of this, but to each their own...but seriously, the show Friends sucks monkey lungs and yeah, that’s just my opinion... but it’s the right one! Okay, let’s just move along here, I’m starting to obsess...

Polished wooden tables and chairs line the brick wall over here for your dining and drinking pleasure.

This is the marble topped counter where you order your coffee, drinks and food at.

Here’s the specials of the day, get there early though, by the time I got there they were already out of the soup of the day! This is one popular place!

Coffee makers and percolators are located behind the front counter waiting to churn out caffeinated goodness!

Check out the vintage bicycle built for two hanging on the brick wall up in the front of the coffee shop, very cool! Although no way could I sit beneath it, I’d have a constant fear that the thing would fall on top of my head. Yikes!

There’s more antique bikes on the wall back here. Sheila told me the bike theme comes into play because One Eleven is located on the Rock Island Trail.

Here’s a cozy little corner complete with overstuffed leather chairs, a couch, a faux fireplace and a chess board. Check and checkmate!

One Eleven t-shirts and coffee to go are available over here.

There’s another room tucked away back here, let’s go take a look...

Very nice! Love the wooden walls and there’s communal tables back here along with a TV and a working fireplace. We’ll have to come back here in the winter to see that thing blazing!

Here’s a kiddie table where children can create art and even draw on the table...

Check out this tribute to One Eleven, nice work!

A shot from the back of the coffee shop...are you wondering who that group of people is over there? Me too, let’s go take a closer look...

Here they are, I didn’t get their names, but a good portion of them are so proud of their opposable thumbs! That’s spectacular! Look at their thumbs...gee, your dumbs!

Uh, oh, look over there, I think that our lunch has been served, let’s sit down and take a look at it.

I ordered the Oriental Chicken salad and it looks colorful and delicious!

It’s very tasty, there’s all kinds of flavors happening in the salad from the fresh chicken to the tangy dressing to tiny mandarin orange slices and crunchy, munchy toppings. So tasty and good!

And now, on to the Coffee Talk portion of this post! This is Ashley, the cute Coffee Barista of One Eleven. I asked her to make me a coffee drink that a non-coffee drinker would enjoy and she suggested the Honey Bee which is a latte made with espresso, milk, caramel and chocolate. Sounds good to me, let’s watch Ashley do her coffee magic!

The espresso has been poured and some of the flavorings are carefully and expertly added by Ashley.

Here’s the caramel being added in...

And the latte is now finished and being poured over a glass of finely cubed ice.

Beautiful! And the latte looks pretty good too!

It’s really tasty and the chocolate and caramel bring out a nice flavor from the espresso and I like it! I might become a coffee drinker after all! Thanks to Ashley for making a great latte and to Sheila, Melissa and Stacy for a fun, caffeinated day at One Eleven Coffee! We’ll see you all tomorrow!