Okay, the Twelve More Weeks of Chicken Wings Tour is over and so it’s time for the Palate Cleansing post before we begin yet another gut-busting MBIP food tour. In the past we’ve cleansed our palate at Chili’s and One Eleven Coffee, but this time to cleanse my palate from the last twelve (well, really it was fourteen) weeks of chicken wings, I thought I’d go and get an actual palate cleanser of sorbet at one of my favorite places in town, Emack & Bolio’s! And since it’s summer, let’s go visit their riverfront ice cream shop. To the MBIP Mobile!
We’re off and zooming down I-74 on this partly cloudy day. Always thankful for those clouds shielding us from that god-awful sunshine! Thank you clouds, I love you!
Up the stairs and here we are at Emack & Bolio’s riverfront location.
This building is a historical structure here in Peoria, it’s the oldest commercial building on Peoria’s Riverfront. So if you want a slice of history along with your scoop of ice cream, this is the place to go!
Let’s go in and see what’s happening today in this historical building!
It say’s, “Push Here,” okay, I can follow orders, let’s push and see what happens, the excitement is really reaching what I like to call, “a pitch level” right now! Actually, I have no idea what the words, “pitch level,” really mean, I just made them up and I’m barely awake right now, but they sound pretty good, don’t they? Okay, let’s see what happens when push comes to shove...
Hey, it works! I’m inside and who’s that jolly fellow over there behind the front counter?
Why it’s Tim Hennessey, the co-owner of Emack’s and he’s displaying a little sign that says: “Eat Ice Cream for Daily Happiness.” That’s good to know because I used to drink 27 beers for daily happiness, but maybe I’ll try the ice cream thing for the next 51 weeks (Inside joke alert.) Oh and his daughter Katie gave him that sign! Hello Katie!
Before we begin the all-important palate cleansing procedure, let’s take a look around in here! The wall opposite the front counter has some cool pictures and art on it. There’s the Legends of Rock ‘n Roll, Rock & Roll and at the bottom is a drawing of Linda Ronstadt done by my brother, Jim! Nice to see his artwork living on in Emack’s and now right here on the MBIP blog!
The front counter has a plethora of tasty and colorful dipped cones to house the ice cream in. And how happy am I that I squeezed in the word, “plethora?” I’m very pleased with myself at this moment in time, please and thank you!
There’s vintage soda to wash down your ice cream with here at the front counter. I think this is the only place in Peoria where you can get a bottle of Green River. Nothing like the feeling of drinking Creedence Clearwater Revival style on a partly cloudy afternoon in downtown Peoria!
Here’s the spacious back dining room where you can enjoy your ice cream in air-conditioned comfort on a hot sunny, summer day.
Photos of Peoria hometown heroes, Richard Pryor and Dan Fogelberg decorate this wall in the back room.
This is a collection of pictures documenting this building’s move to the Riverfront. Very cool!
One of these years they’re going to open this safe and find out that Gary Coleman’s evil twin is living in here and subsisting on a diet of stolen ice cream and Green River soda that he chows down on in a most gluttonous fashion after closing time. Hate Gary Coleman’s evil twin...HATE HATE HATE him!
Okay, it’s palate cleansing time! Sorbet is used for true palate cleansing and here at Emack’s, they have not one, not two, but three flavors of sorbet: Lemon, raspberry and mango. So I asked Tim to prepare me a trifecta of sorbet to wipe out the chicken wing taste from my mouth so I can start the next food tour with a fresh palate and...
Here’s the official MBIP tasting plate we’re going to eat the sorbet off of. Now it’s all up to Tim...
Here he is swinging into action! Tim’s a master scooper and he put together the triple play of sorbet in minutes flat!
Wow, he did a great job! It almost looks like a still life painting! I hate to ruin it by eating this, but I have to be at work in about 43 minutes, so let’s get this shit over with already! Sheesh!
Here I am digging in and cleansing the old palate! If you’ve never had the sorbet here, you should definitely try it! I have to confess, I wasn’t that excited about it, but this sorbet is really smooth, creamy and rich and it was delicious!
Well, now my palate is cleansed, but the MBIP plate is all sticky and dirty from the sorbet residue. Hmm...what will we do? What will we do? I'm sure not going to clean it...oh, I know...
We’ll have Tim clean it and as you can see he’s thrilled about this prospect!
Alright! The MBIP plate and my palate are properly cleansed and we can begin our next food tour next week which is going to be called: “A Year In The Life Of A Sandwich.” I’m going to be going to local restaurants and eating a signature sandwich every week for a solid year at the different eating establishments and bars. I got lots of recommendations and ideas on where to go over at facecrack and if you’d like to put your two cents in over there, here’s the link to that or you can leave it in the comments below. Thanks to Tim for serving up some great sorbet and for his guidance as the official MBIP Spiritual Guru and of course for doing the dishes! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
Emack & Bolio’s
110 SW Water Street
Peoria, IL
309-713-3524
Emack’s in the Heights
4534 N Prospect Road
Peoria Heights
309-682-3530
Related Posts: Palate Cleanser @ Chili’s, One Eleven Coffee and On The Riverfront—Emack & Bolio’s.