I’ve been to Kelleher’s a couple of times for MBIP Saturday Night posts, but I’ve never tried the chicken wings there. I’ve had some people comment asking if I’d go and try them out and just to prove that we do take requests here at MBIP, it’s off to Kelleher’s we go!

Here we are at Kelleher’s Irish Pub & Eatery. This place has been standing tall down here on Water Street for over 15 years. Now let’s get inside, it’s like 57 degrees below zero out here! Brrrr!

It’s huge in here and even on a sub-zero temperature Monday night, there’s still people in here, proving its popularity. Let’s go grab a seat at the bar and get warmed up!

Bartender Aaron starts our winged night out with a bottle of Budweiser and a smile!

Nate and Mandi were enjoying drinks at the bar and Mandi told me that her band, Thetah is playing a show this Sunday at Broken Tree Coffee along with some other bands. The show starts around 8PM. Check out the Thetah facecrack page right here.

Here’s a couple of familiar faces, on the left is Andrew, who we met and hung out with when we went and had a fun night at the Peoria Civic Center and to the right is Pat Sullivan, the owner of Kelleher’s! Great to see both of them!

I asked Pat about the three paintings hanging up behind the bar and he explained that they were painted for Kelleher’s by artist Mariam Graf and they’re scenes from Elkader, Iowa, the hometown of Pat’s Mother, Colleen. Colleen’s maiden name is Kelleher and that’s who the bar is named after. Very nice!

Okay, I think MBIP commentator Dan#2 is going to like this, check out all the beer on tap they’ve got! Very impressive!

Andrew pointed out this lone tap at the bar. It’s a Belgium beer called, Framboise and he said that this is the only bar in Peoria where you can get it and bought me one. It is so good, it’s sweet at first sip and then a little bit of sour kicks in. If you haven’t tried this, it’s worth the trip alone to sample it! Thanks for the beer and the information, Andrew!

As you can see from this shot, there’s also a decent amount of canned and bottled beer at Kelleher’s.

Pat told me that there was something special going on in the back of the bar...

It’s a Vino Van Gogh painting night at Kelleher’s!

This has become a popular attraction at bars around town lately. They were just finishing up when we got back there.

These are the two instructors for the evening, Leslie and Rachel. You can read more about Vino Van Gogh nights and upcoming dates by clicking here: Vino Van Gogh.

Here’s tonight’s Vino Van Gogh group posing with their paintings for the MBIP camera. Nice work, ladies!

Meanwhile, back at the bar...

It looks like it’s time to do our weekly chicken wing thing!

Here’s Aaron with the chicken wings!

They have three styles of wings and they cooked up a combination of all three for us.

From left, there’s Inferno, Guinness BBQ and Hot. We’ll let them proceed with the all-important cooling process which gives us time for...

Another beer! And yeah, this is the same photo from when we first came in. I forgot to take one after the wings came. Hey, everybody makes mistakes! Sheesh! Okay, back to the wings!

I tried the Hot flavor first, then the Guinness BBQ and saved the Inferno for last. All the wings were plump and juicy and I think I liked the Guinness BBQ the best. The Inferno was hot, but it also had some nice flavor to it as well.

Here’s Andrew attacking an Inferno wing, it looks like his was hotter than mine!

Weekly bones and napkin shot!

After we sampled the chicken wings, Pat was nice enough to buy us a shot of this Jameson specialty whiskey. It’s different than your standard Jameson because of the aging process and the casks it’s age in. Pat said it was really smooth.

And he was right, it was really smooth and went down the hatch easily! Cheers and thanks to everyone at Kelleher’s for a fun chicken wing night in downtown Peoria! We’ll see you all tomorrow!