Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, Oliver’s Pizza & Pub North, with special guest star, Ben Lowrey A.K.A. B Löwd and a special birthday appearance by Matt Gibson! And now, please welcome this week’s host from high atop Willow Knolls Drive, Oliver’s Pizza & Pub North!
Okay, if you’ve been following these vegetarian editions of our Saturday Night posts, you’ll know that this is our fourth month into our year-long vegetarian Saturday Night meals in Peoria. As always, Ben Lowrey, A.K.A. B Löwd is behind the wheel. Ben’s a DJ here in Peoria and if you’d like to see him spin his music live, here’s a couple links to appearances coming up: Halloween Party, October 28th at City Heat and Good Vibes Pt. 2 at The New Amsterdam Club, November 19th. Check him out at those gigs and now check us out as we travel up Main Street all the way over to Willow Knolls Drive and...
Oliver’s Pizza & Pub North! I love the way the outside of this place looks like a southern mansion!
Up on the front porch are tables for outside dining, but with the chilly fall air breezing in, everyone’s dining inside tonight, so let’s go on in and check out what’s happening on this wonderful Saturday night!
The first thing I see upon entering is the featured Beer of the Month at Oliver’s. This is a deal where you pay $6.50 for a featured pint, you get to keep the glass and then it’s $5.50 pint refills after that for the entire month! Such a deal! Okay, the dining room is over here, let’s head on in, I’m starving like you know who over here!
We got a table in the back of the comfortable dining room and I took a shot from where we’re seated back there. Here’s our waiter, Sean with a beer and it turns out we’ve met when I did a post over at Hangovers! So of course we must cue this up and then we checked out the menu and ordered our meatless meal for the evening. And then I took off with the MBIP Camera to get some photos while the dinner is being prepared.
The Cubs are playing tonight and if they win, they’ll be in the 2016 World Series, this is enough to make even a non-sports fan like myself kind of excited, so there’ll be an update at the end of this post about the game, even though by the time you read this it’ll be yesterday’s news, but what are you going to do? I love some of these Peoria shots hanging in the dining room.
There’s a spacious bar area right next door to the dining room, so I wandered in there and met Frank, who was busy behind the bar, but still took time to pose for the MBIP Camera. Thanks Frank! Nice to meet you!
As you can see, they have a decent amount of beers on tap and that’s Rosemary and Stan taking a break. I met Rosemary at this year’s Peoria Wingfest and it was great to see her again. Stan told me he lurks in the darkness often and I can tell he’s a seasoned pro! He also does bartending duty here at Oliver’s.
Of all the things I saw in here, this Pulp Fiction milkshake picture is one of my favorites! I don't know if it's worth five dollars, but it's pretty fucking good!
There’s a lit-up beer garden outside, very nice!
Meanwhile, back at our table, there’s Ben and I think it’s just about appetizer time...
Yep, here’s our pre-pizza snacks we ordered. We got an order of the Buffalo Fries and an order of the Onion Rings and they look and smell fantastic!
There’s Ben digging in and as great as they look and smell, they taste even better! I’ve had the onion rings here before and knew they were great, but these Buffalo Fries are really a taste treat! You can read more about them in the review below!
Here’s Sean with the main course, a pizza pie!
Its easy having a veggie meal here at Oliver’s! We got a split pizza, half veggie and half cheese. The pizza here is really tasty and it was delicious as always!
There’s party rooms available to rent out upstairs and Sean told us that there was a birthday party going on up there, so I went up with the MBIP Camera and investigated this claim and Sean was right! There was a party for Matt Gibson, who turned 27-years-old on Saturday and they let me take a photo of the entire party! Matt’s a Sales Consultant for Uftring Automall, so feel free to get hold of him @ 309-427-7908 if you’re looking for a vehicle! Happy birthday, Matt!
And here’s the update on that Cubs game: Cubs Win! They’re going to the World Series this week and as you can see, lots of excitement happened in Chicago after the win!
Back at our table, a lone onion ring sits in the basket as we hit the road. I know that’s a little sad, but that’s life in the fast onion ring lane! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
We got two appetizers to start out this veggie meal: Onion Rings and Buffalo Fries and they were an outstanding way to start our fourth vegetarian dinner. I’ve had the onion rings before and they are some of the best in town in my opinion. They’re big rings, but they’re flaky rings covered in homemade PBR Batter and the onions are a wonderful combination of sweet, salty and tasty. I’ve never had the Buffalo Fries and they are something I’ll definitely get again on my next trip here. The fries are hand cut, medium size and they’re covered in rich blue cheese crumbles and then drizzled with a generous slathering of spicy buffalo sauce. If you’re a vegetarian who’s been jonesing for buffalo wings, try these out and your craving will be cured!
Our pizza was a no-brainer for this meatless night, we got half cheese and half veggie and it was really delicious! The pizza recipe at Oliver’s is over six decades old and the sauce is homemade and really tasty. The crust is thin and crispy and it was so satisfying and I didn’t even miss not having any meat on it at all.
SN Rating
Three and a half Galloping Gourmets—It’s easy to go vegetarian here and there’s lots of tasty meatless options. A wonderful vegetarian meal was had! If you do want meat though, there's plenty of choices on that side of the menu as well!
Oliver’s Pizza & Pub North
3300 W. Willow Knolls Drive
Peoria
309-691-7891
Related Posts: Saturday Night Vegetarian Series @ Novu Sushi, PV II and Po-Boys On Frostwood.