Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, Sky Harbor Steak House and featuring special guest stars, Sheila Maher, Mrs. Klu and a whole bunch other people! And now, please welcome this week's host from West Peoria, Sky Harbor Steak House!
Tonight is a special Saturday Night post. We’re going to Sky Harbor to celebrate their 46th anniversary and we’re also going to induct them into the ultra-exclusive, MBIP Twelve-Timers Club, which is reserved for businesses and restaurants in Peoria that have been featured on the MBIP blog twelve times or more. Right now the only members of this club are Agatucci’s who got inducted back in June. I thought that it would be fun to have the last inductee send something to the newest members of the MBIP Twelve-Timer’s Club, so here we are at Agatucci’s! There’s Tony and Dan and they’ve got their Twelve-Timer’s gift inside of one of their classic doggy bags. Perfect! Okay time to start our Saturday night festivities!
We’ve got company tonight on our anniversary/Twelve-Timer’s Club post and that company is my friend, Sheila Maher! She’s driving and she struck a Miley Cyrus-like pose for the MBIP Camera! Shelia’s a senior travel consultant for Suzi Davis Travel and she can get you the best deal on your vacation, business trip or honeymoon. She recently set up honeymoon packages for my niece Caylin and her fiancee Patrick and also for my friends Amber and Joe. She was able to arrange that Amber and Joe are going to be able to touch monkeys on their honeymoon, so hopefully they’ll send in pictures of that!
Here we are at Sky Harbor and you can see by the sign that they’re in full celebration mode for their 46th anniversary! And they’ve also noted our arrival on the sign! I love it when that happens!
Okay let’s go in and let Saturday night begin!
They have the coolest foyer area in Peoria! I love that stone wall! And there’s Mrs. Klu at her hostess station, looking pretty as a picture! I wished her a happy anniversary and asked where Daryl was and found out some exciting news: There’s a new Klusendorf in town! Daryl’s son Ryan and his wife just had a baby boy a couple hours earlier! Daryl was with the happy couple and his new grandson, so I told Mrs. Klu she’d have to open the anniversary presents later and she said she’d be delighted to. I also told her there was another surprise, so keep scrolling down as the festivities unfold tonight!
There’s the bar where I usually sit, but I thought that tonight we’d get a table and go to the bar when I give Mrs. Klu the anniversary presents. As we made our way to our table, a funny thing happened, we ran into some people we knew and then some more and then even more!
The People
The first people we ran into were sitting at this table, that’s Margie and Jim Jumer to the far right and they were having dinner with some of their friends. I told Margie and Jim about the recent Jumer’s cinnamon roll post here on MBIP and they loved it! I worked for years at Fleming Potter with Margie so Sheila took a picture of the two of us together again! Then we ran into Mayor Jim Dillon and his wife seated at this banquette and visited with them for a while. I think this is the first time I’ve taken a picture of Mayor Dillon when it hasn’t been at Mike’s Tavern! Nice to know he frequents other establishments in West Peoria! Then we ran into Tori and Dick, who I met over four years ago at the last night at Herold’s Pizza Inn. We’ve been friends ever since and they’ve been on the blog several times through the years. I had no idea Sheila was friends with them too! We stopped by the piano bar to say hi to Bob Bishop and then it was finally time to sit down for Saturday night dinner! Oh, we also ran into Patty and Mike who are old high school friends of ours, but they left before I could snap their photo! Okay, time to eat!
Saturday Night Dinner
Audrey was our waitress for the evening and she did a great job! We started off with their Monterey Jax Mushrooms which are a signature appetizer at Sky Harbor. They’re whole mushrooms sauteed in red wine and covered with melted Jack Cheese. They’re always a taste-treat and tonight was no exception. As we ate the mushrooms, Mrs. Klu came over and serenaded us with her musical washboard!
Now it’s time for the main courses! We each got a salad and Sheila got the petite filet which is wrapped in sizzling bacon! I got the fried chicken which is a house specialty and it’s always seasoned perfectly, crispy on the outside and juicy and flavorful inside! We each got an order of their au gratin potatoes, which is another signature item on the menu. Dinner was fantastic and delicious as always!
Happy Anniversary
After dinner we went up to the bar and there’s Beth, who ‘s the bartender for the evening. That’s my present hanging on the wall behind the bar and it’s a 45 single of the song, “Harbor Lights that I got for them last year on the 45th anniversary. Mrs. Klu is at the bar starting to open this years anniversary gifts!
I got the gifts at one of my favorite gift shops in town, Relics. The gifts included a glass heart, four cards with the letters, SHFS, which stands for Sky Harbor Forty Six. I also got a Peoria postcard and a towel that’s gold stamped with the words, “Eat Local" with a map of illinois on it. Happy 46th anniversary to Sky Harbor!
Sky Harbor’s Induction To The Ultra-Exclusive MBIP Twelve-Timer’s Club!
After the anniversary celebration it was time to induct Sky Harbor into the ultra-exclusive MBIP Twelve-Timer’s Club! As you can see, we’ve spared no expense in the induction gifts! There’s a framed, personally lettered MBIP induction picture and a bag containing twelve, government made mini copper medallions! And Tony and Dan from Agatucci’s gave them a bottle of their Tiger Sauce! That was perfect and very nice of them! Welcome to the Twelve-Timer’s Club, Sky Harbor! Now that we’ve got two members, it’s starting to feel like a real club! I may have to get t-shirts made!
15 Photos From The Past 15 Posts
I thought I had been to Sky Harbor at least twelve times and it turns out I’ve done fifteen posts from there on the blog through the years! Here’s photos in order of the appearance on the blog and here’s the links to them, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen.
Welcome to the Twelve-Timer’s Club, Daryl and Mrs. Klu and congratulations to yout whole family as you welcome the newest Klusendorf to Peoria! Thanks for all the fun and great meals the last four years and I look forward to many more in the future! Thanks to Sheila for driving, hanging out and taking the induction pictures, great to see you as always! We’ll see you all tomorrow
-------
1321 N. Park Road
West Peoria
309-674-5532
-------
Related Post: Agatucci’s Inducted Into The Ultra-Exclusive MBIP Twelve-Timers Club!