Live from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger, starring this week’s host, Obed & Isaac’s Microbrewery & Eatery and featuring special guest stars, Ray, Monte, Nick, Jenny, Kryssi, Shelley, Tim, Blair, Beth, Alexis and The Dave Southey Experience! And now, please welcome this week’s host, from beautiful downtown Peoria, Obed & Isaac’s Microbrewery & Eatery!
Here we are at Obed & Isaac’s Microwbrewery & Eatery. This is really an historic building here in Peoria, it was constructed back in 1889 and was originally a Presbyterian Church. The building is huge so I had to take several different shots to help you get an idea of it, in case you’ve never seen it. There’s also lots of stained glass and it’s really a beautiful building in downtown Peoria.
Okay, now that we’ve scoped the outside, let’s go in and start this week’s Saturday night and tonight we’re going back to the original roots of these Saturday posts and I’m going to get a cheeseburger for dinner! It’s been a while and I heard they have some good burgers here, so we’ll try one tonight!
I love the cathedral look and feeling as you enter the foyer that leads to the bar and dining area inside. Before I was even inside I met a nice couple, Rachael and Josh. Rachael told me she was visiting Peoria from Minnesota and she told me she’s a faithful MBIP reader, very cool to meet a long distance reader in person! I made my way to the front station and ran into a familiar face there, it’s Ray, who faithful MBIP readers will recognize from Saturday Night’s at Salt and Thyme. Ray’s managing Obed’s now and he’s one of the nicest guys in the restaurant business here in Peoria and I always love seeing him! That’s Monte alongside of him and they told me I could go in and grab a seat at the bar. I went in and as you can see, this is a popular spot and lots of people are trying it out. The bar is crowded, but I spied a seat on the other side, so I quickly went and snagged it!
And here’s some shots from my perch at the bar. There’s three people working the bar and as you can see from these photos, they’re certainly busy tonight. Let’s see if we can get them to stop for a second and pose for the MBIP camera...
Houston, we have photos! From top, that’s Nick, Jenny and Kryssi! Wonderful to meet all of them and it was really great to see Jenny, I haven’t seen her since the last time I saw her at The Tartan Inn and it was fun to chat and catch up with her!
I love the way the menu here is in newspaper form! There’s lots of tasty sounding selections to choose from and I decided to start off with something I’ve never had before...
And that something is an entry off of the Snacks selection called, Scotch Eggs. These are hardboiled eggs that are wrapped in sausage, breadcrumbs and then deep fried! They are so good and I love the home-made mustard that comes with them! This could be a whole meal unto itself and I couldn’t eat all of them, but luckily I saw a familiar face down at the end of the bar who might want to try one of them...
It’s Shelley who I met at Darling’s Dine & Draft last August! She was there with Tim and we couldn’t decide on whether we should use the photo of her drinking or not, so I decided to use both! And the bottom photo is Shelley sampling one of the Scotch Eggs and she loved it too! Great to see Shelley again and meet Tim! And now I should return to my seat because I think it’s just about...
Cheeseburger time! Here’s Nick with tonight’s dinner and I need to take a close up shot of this burger...
Wow! I’ve never seen a cheeseburger like this in my life and if you’ve been reading my blogs through the years, you know I’ve had a lot of cheeseburgers in my travels! This is the Stinger Burger and as you can see, it’s piled about a half a foot high with home-made onion rings! I need to do a little deconstructing here!
Okay, I took some of the onion rings off and put them to the side and now I think we’ll be able to bite into this monster cheeseburger! I first sampled the onion rings and the mac and cheese and they were both tasty. The mac and cheese had bread crumbs crumbled on top and that’s always a nice touch! The cheeseburger was a real delight! You can read more about it in the review below, but it’s one tasty burger and I’m glad I decided to try it out! The food and service here is fabulous!
After dinner I took a little walk around and it’s really a grand and elegant building. There’s dining and communal tables surrounding the bar and there’s lots of beautiful stained glass. The ceilings are high and ornate. It’s worth coming here just to soak in this atmosphere and history from the building, but try some of the food and the in-house brewed beer and cider while you’re here, you’ll be glad you did! I met Blair, Beth and Alexis in my travels and they were just as impressed with the place as I was!
Ray showed me this study room which can be rented out for private parties and then he took me outside to the spacious beer garden and patio outside. There’s a fire pit out here and the Obed’s & Isaac brewery is located back here as well. As I was getting ready to go I ran into a quartet of people I like to call, The Dave Southey Experience! Great to see all of them and chat! This was a fun night and the food, service and hospitality was fantastic! Thanks To Ray, Nick, Jenny, Kryssi and everyone at Obed’s for a wonderful Cheeseburger Saturday Night! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
Obed & Isaac’s bill their food as, “upscale pub fare” and I think that’s a very fitting description. While there’s the standard burgers, sandwiches and salads on the menu, there’s also some very unique choices to sample and it’s all made in-house and cooked up fresh as you order.
I started my meal off with a selection from the Snacks selection on the menu and tried the Scotch Eggs. I’ve only seen these offered at a few restaurants in my life, so I thought I’d give them a try and I’m glad I did! They’re four halves of hard-boiled eggs which are wrapped in sausage, then breaded and then...wait for it...deep fried! If that sounds like a decadent snack, it certainly is! The eggs are served with marianara sauce and home-made stone ground mustard. The eggs are delicious, they’re crispy on the outside and rich and creamy in the center. The stone ground mustard was really fantastic and it complimented the eggs very well. These are very filling and unless you’re getting them for a main course, I suggest you share them, like I did with Shelley!
For my main course, I decided to go old school here on MBIP and put the cheeseburger back in Saturday Night Cheeseburger! They have a half dozen of burgers to choose from including, a Pub Burger, a Beer and Whiskey Burger, a Lamb Burger and a Turkey Burger. I went with the Stinger Burger, which is a burger with onion rings, cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce and strips of bacon on a pretzel roll. That sounds like a big burger and it was beyond my wildest imagination!
The burger is piled about a half a foot high with a tower of onion rings that lead down to the bacon cheeseburger. I had to take some of the onion rings off of the burger to take a bite and when I did it was so delicious! The burger was seasoned nicely, juicy and cooked to perfection. It had strips of thick, smoky bacon and the onion rings and barbecue sauce added some nice flavors and textures to the burger. The pretzel bun was bakery fresh and it was certainly a tasty and satisfying burger
SNC Rating
Three and a half Galloping Gourmets—This was a tasty and unique burger and the Scotch Eggs were a decadent treat. The menu also features sandwiches including a specialty horseshoe sandwich, flatbread pizzas and entrees including, Fish and Chips, Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf, Blackened Salmon and Bangers-n-Mash. I will be back to try some of those dishes out in the future! The atomsphere and hospitality can’t be beat here, everyone is so friendly and I highly suggest you go and give it a try!
Obed & Isaac’s Microbrewery & Eatery
321 NE Madison Avenue
Peoria
309-306-0190
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