Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger starring this week’s host, Brasky’s Bar & Grill and featuring special musical guests, Highway J! And now, please welcome this week’s host, Brasky’s Bar & Grill!
I haven’t been out here to Brasky’s for quite a while. In fact I think my last trip was when we were doing our quickity-blickity soup tour back in 2015. One of the reasons I’m coming here tonight, other than the fact that I’m overdue for a visit here, is that I heard Highway J is playing live here tonight and I’ve heard some really good things about this band. So I thought we’d have a little music with our Saturday Night meal tonight and by looking in the front window, I can see that they’ve started playing already, we better get inside, looks like Saturday night is starting already!
That’s Highway J playing over on that side of the place, but we need to have our Saturday Night Dinner first, so we’ll just amble over to the bar. It’s crowded here tonight, I’ve heard Highway J has a big following and this crowd is a testament to that fact. I managed to squeeze into a spot near the corner and I see a familiar face over there...
It’s Cole who we met here on a night out back in 2014. Great to see him again and now it’s time to start the dinner portion of the evening, menu please!
Dinner Portion Of The Evening
They have an extensive menu here featuring sandwiches, meals, soups, salads and appetizers, but one thing jumped out at me as I opened it up: The Brasky Burger! I had one of these on my first post from here over three years ago. I first started doing this “Saturday Night Cheeseburger” thing over seven years ago when I was doing my 365 bars blog, you can see that post here. I remember that this was a really good cheeseburger, so I’ve decided to return to my cheesy blogging roots and I ordered up the Brasky Burger! To Bill Brasky!
Here’s a photo of my view of the bar from where I’m perched and there’s some patrons over to my left and the gaming machines behind them.
Hey, there’s Reggie and Mark over there, who let them out of Khaki Jack’s? Does Tony know they spend money in here? I’ll never tell...whoops, I just did, anyway, great to see both of them! There’s six of the beers on tap and if you like your brew bottled, you can see you have a lot to choose from in Brasky’s! To Bill Brasky!
Meanwhile, back at the bar, our Saturday Night Cheeseburger is served up with a smile from Cole! Time to eat!
The cheeseburger looks even better than I remember! It comes with a side item, so I got some cole slaw, since the the burger is deep-fried, I figured I should get something resembling a vegetable to balance things out somewhat. The cole slaw was really good, nice and crunchy and just a hint of sweetness to it. Okay, now on to the main event of our dinner portion of the evening...
The Brasky Burger! As I mentioned, this burger is deep-fried and it’s topped off with three kinds of cheese and bacon. You can read more about it in the review, but it’s one delicious burger and there’s not another cheeseburger like it in Peoria or beyond! It definitely lives up to a legend that equals Bill Brasky...to Bill Brasky! And cheers to this cheeseburger, ti’s delicious! And now it’s time to head over to the other side of the bar and begin...
The Musical Portion Of The Evening With Highway J!
As I mentioned at the start of this post, Highway J has a following of loyal fans and I think they all showed up tonight! I was looking for a place to sit and I found two friends of mine there in the crowd with their husbands. Their husbands were a little camera shy, but there’s Kay and Mary and they said I could sit at their table and enjoy the band at their ringside seats. Thanks, Kay and Mary! Always a pleasure to sit nearby the two of you!
Here’s the band in action: Highway J!
I’ve heard really good reports on this band and I went and watched some of their videos on YouTube and I liked what I saw so I was anxious to see them in a live setting and they did not disappoint! They have original tunes of their own that are really great (there’s a video of one at the end of this post) but in a bar gig, they rely a little more on covers and they have a varied list of songs they play. It runs the gamut from The Police to The Beatles to Elvis Costello to The Wallflowers and everything in between. They take the original songs and add their own fills and riffs and the songs still sound familiar but with a slightly different twist. They’re really a tight and talented band and this is a great show!
Hey look, I’m not the only one taking photos...although I think Mary was taking photos of the Cub game on the big screen TV, but that’s okay! To each their own!
If you get a chance to see Highway J live, you should definitely do it! They’re a great band and there’s fun dialogue and audience interaction between the songs. You can read about upcoming gigs on right here.
The band was nice enough to take time to pose for a photo for the MBIP Camera in between sets. From left: Don, Ryan, Dave, Ryan and Jeff. Thanks for the great show guys, it was a blast! And thanks to Kay and Mary for letting me sit at your table, great to see you and your husbands! Hope to hang out again soon! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
I went in to Brasky’s with the intention of trying something other than a cheeseburger because I’ve had it already. You can see that post from almost four years ago by clicking here. Everything looked good on the menu and I was just about to get a different meal when the Brasky’s cheeseburger jumped out at me and I remembered how good it was, so I decided to try it again. Hey, it’s almost been four years, I wanted to see if it had changed at all!
It came and it had changed, it seemed even more delicious than the first time I had this cheeseburger! It’s definitely a unique cheeseburger. It’s a generous slab of beef that’s cooked and then deep-fried, yep, they deep-fry this cheeseburger. Now while that may sound like a food stunt and maybe it is, but it really makes this an original tasting cheeseburger. The outside of it is crispy and inside it’s really juicy and filled with flavor. The burger is topped off with a trio of cheeses: American, Swiss and Pepper Jack cheese. And if that wasn’t enough, that’s topped off with two slices of smoky Applewood bacon and a bakery fresh toasted bun! As I stated earlier in the post, I started sampling cheeseburgers over ten years ago in New York and I’ve had them at about every bar and restaurant in and around Peoria and this is definitely is one of the best!
Cheeseburger Rating
Four Wimpy’s—If you love cheeseburger’s and you’ve never had The Brasky Burger, you need to go and try one out. It’s big enough for two to split as well, unless you happen to be...Bill Brasky! To Bill Brasky!
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9901 N. Knoxville Avenue
Peoria
309-240-8422
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