Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, Thyme Kitchen + Craft Beer, with special guest stars, Ray, Aaron, Jason, Andy, Sydney and Savannah and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher! And now, please welcome all the way from The Warehouse District in beautiful downtown Peoria, Thyme Kitchen + Craft Beer!
Here we are at Thyme, it’s located on Washington Street and it’s owned by local restaurant wizard, Travis Mohlenbrink, who also owns Salt, Cracked Pepper and Sugar. The building is the old Sealtest building and I think it’s great that Travis left the old logo on the side of the building.
Let’s go in and start our Saturday Night. We’ve got plenty of thyme after all! Get used to that, I have a feeling I’m going to run that into the ground before we’re done!
Check out the sign that greets you as you enter the front foyer: “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy beer and that kind of the same thing.” Ha!
Holy shitballs, it’s packed tighter in here than Oprah in a pair of skinny jeans!
I was getting ready to abandon tonight’s destination as there looked like there would be no place to sit for hours and I had to start taking pictures and get this thing rolling when I ran into MBIP pal, Ray, who we know from when he worked at Salt. He’s a great guy and said he’d get me a place at the bar and he managed to squeeze me into a spot at the bar! Let’s all applaud Ray, without him this post wouldn’t have seen the light of the day! Thanks, Ray! You’re the best!
These are my neighbors at the bar that happily let me squeeze in next to them, up top is Kristin and Tony and bottom to my left are Chris and Dawn. Thanks for letting me squeeze into the bar! We can now officially begin Saturday Night! Hooray!
And here’s Aaron, one of the friendly bartenders on duty serving up a beer for the evening, now we’re off and running!
They have 40 beers on tap and 30 of them change frequently, only ten are permanent, so you’ll always find new craft beer here at Thyme!
I tried to geta shot of all of the taps but they wouldn’t fit in my camera range, so we’ll take separate shots of the taps.
And here’s the separate shots, quit a selection of draft beer here at Thyme! Glad I took the thyme to take these separate shots! Told you I’d run that pun into the ground!
Here’s Jason another bartender on duty tonight showing off just two of the 100 brands of bourbon available here at Thyme. And while he’s on the ground...
Aaron is moving up in the world on the bar’s ladder fetching bourbon drinks from some of the really top shelf drinks in the back of the bar. This is really nosebleed country up there!
I went ahead and ordered dinner from the eclectic menu. There’s some really different choices on the menu and you can read more about that in the review below. Now while dinner is being prepared, let’s take a look around in here.
The back of the bar is really spectacular and the dining room is located directly behind the bar and there’s another dining area opposite that in the back of the room. It’s really spacious in here and it has a real rustic and urban feel to it.
I met this group of fellow diners who were wondering why I was taking pictures in here and they dutifully posed for the MBIP Camera. From left: Kathy, Doreen, Rod and Jane. They were really nice and it was wonderful to meet and chat with them!
Up at the host station I met Andy, who’s the General Manager here and Sydney who’s the friendly and pretty hostess here.
Meanwhile, back at the bar, Savannah was rocking her Metallica t-shirt in a beautiful way! She told me she reads MBIP and it was cool to meet her, she’s a lot of fun as you can tell from this photo!
Okay, here comes dinner! I started off with a bowl of the Smokey Poblano and Cheese Soup. It was rich, thick, smokey, cheesy and very delicious!
My main course was Pasta In Bowl and true to the name it arrived in a bowl and Aaron added house-made Parmesan cheese and shook it uplike a Cars song and served it up. This was a fun presentation for the main course!
And it was so delicious, once again you can read about it in the review below, but you should really go and try this!
All gone! So delicious, now let’s walk off dinner a little bit.
There’s a second floor up there, let’s take a hike over there and check it out..
The stairs are right here and up we go to...
The second floor. Lots dining tables up here and there’s a railing where we can look down at the action below!
Aerial shots of Saturday Night at Thyme Kitchen + Craft Beer restaurant. This is certainly a spectacular looking restaurant and a great addition to the Peoria Warehouse District!
I haven’t done an obligatory bathroom mirror shot since we’ve come back from break, so here you go! Thanks to Aaron, Jason, Andy, Sydney and Savannah for the great service and hospitality and special thanks to Ray for saving the day and setting us up, you’re the best, my friend! It was a wonderful thyme.Told you I’d beat that shit into the ground! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
The menu at Thyme is gastropub fare and there’s some choices on the menu that Peoria has never seen before such as: Chicken Fried Rabbit Wings, Deconstructed Duck Tamale, Pulled Bacon Parfait and a...gasp...vegetarian tenderloin! I need to try that out soon, not this time but probably next visit for sure. If you’re not an adventurous eater, there’s also burgers, a fried chicken sandwich and Steak Frittes on this eclectic menu.
I started off with a bowl of the Smokey Poblano and Cheese Soup. It arrived with colorful tortilla strips on the top and it smelled delicious so I dove right in. The soup was a bowl filled with flavors. The cheese soup was thick, rich and creamy with the Poblano pepper cutting the richness with a nice, sharp spiciness, a perfect balance. There were also vegetables in the soup and while they didn’t really add to the flavor, they did give the soup a nice consistency.
For my main course, I got the Pasta in Jar, which was recommended by bartender, Aaron. Well, Aaron certainly steered me in the right direction! It’s called Pasta in Jar, because the pasta and sauce arrives at your table (at the bar in my case) in a jar. Aaron then added cheese to it and shook it up like a giant martini shaker and then poured it on to the plate. It’s a real fun presentation and it turned out to be a delicious one as well! The pasta is Cavatappi corkscrew pasta and it was cooked slightly al dente, which is just the way I like it. It’s served with fresh Parmesan cheese and a Bolognese sauce. The sauce was really tasty and it has smoked short ribs blended in which really gave it a nice savory and rich flavor and there was just a hint of sweetness in the sauce. It was a wonderful meal and I can’t wait to go back and try more!
SN Rating
Three and a half Galloping Gourmets—Great food and wonderful hospitality await you at Thyme Kitchen + Craft Beer!
Thyme Kitchen + Craft Beer
736 SW Washington Street
Peoria
309-713-2619
Related Posts: Saturday Night @ Sully’s Pub, Judge’s Chamber and Agatucci’s.