Last week when I picked up a cake at Trefzger’s Bakery for the debut of “Let Them Eat Cake” episode, I made an amazing discovery, Tregzger’s now has homemade pizza pie! Well, I knew I had to try this out and today’s the day where savory pizza pie meets sweet treats at Trefzger’s Bakery!
Here we are at Trefzger’s Bakery off of Prospect in Peoria Heights. This is a spectacular building and they moved in here last October. The building has quite a history behind it and it’s so great that it’s now housing one of Peoria’s historical businesses, Trefzger’s is Central Illinois' oldest bakery. Okay, let’s go inside and see what’s cooking in here today.
I love the new bakery inside of here. The wooden beams and floor are really nice and it’s about twice the size of the old Trefzger’s which was located down the street. Check out the bicycle on the corner of the case. That’s there for a good reason...
And Jeff Huebner who owns Trefzger’s along with his wife Martha explained it to me while showing me these vintage bicycles that will be on display in the bakery soon. I didn’t know that this building was originally the Rouse-Hazard Bicycle Manufacturing company. They opened in 1895 and manufactured over 20,000 bikes per year. These bicycles that Jeff has behind the counter are bikes that were originally made right here in this building. You can read more about the history of this building by clicking right here. In addition to the vintage bicycles, part of the display will also feature these original Trefzger milk crates from the late 1800’s! Jeff said the display should be up this week.
We have special guests for our Trefzger’s pizza lunch today and they’re seated over at a table in the dining section of Trefzger’s. It’s Jeanette and Tim Brickner. Jeanette’s a writer and the editor of the Pekin Daily Times and Tim’s a musician who’s currently playing bass with Matthew Curry. Tim and Jeanette got married back in October of 2015 and you can see pictures of the wedding right here. Oh and Tim’s going to be playing at the Jim McCarty birthday party at LImelight, I just found out about this and have other plans, but you should try and attend the birthday party for the drummer of The Yardbirds right here in Peoria. All the information for that is right here. Okay, let’s go order a pizza pie here at Trefzger’s!
Madison took our order and Jeff said we could take a picture of it before it gets slid into the oven and there it is! Like everything in here, the pizza is made from scratch every day. There’s Jeff sliding it into the oven, I can’t wait to try this!
While the savory pie is baking, let’s take a look at the sweet side of Trefzger’s. There’s just about every sweet treat imaginable in here and at the bottom are the signature Trefzger’s thumbprint cookies. All of their baked goods are a work of art!
There's something interesting over here. It’s an historical display made by Lauren Griggs for a history fair. There’s photos and facts about Trefzger’s through the years and at the bottom is the founder of Trefzger’s, Simon Trefzger and below that are the current owners, Jeff and Martha Huebner! Hey, that photo looks familiar!
Meanwhile, back at our table, it’s pizza time at Trefzger’s! There’s Jeff with our pizza pie!
It looks delicious and it tastes even better than it looks! The crust for the pizza is an herb and cheese focaccia bread and it’s topped with fresh cheese and vegetables. Our pizza had black olives, tomatoes, spinach and peppers. This is really a unique pizza and is so tasty! There’s not another taste like this in town and I highly recommend you go and try one of these! Right now there’s a limited amount of them made every day, so you should hurry and get one before they sell out! Oh, but finish reading this blog first, I’ve worked really hard on it!
Jeanette and Tim agreed that this is really fantastic pizza and it tastes like no other pizza in town. Those last three slices disappeared quicker than you can say, "Jimmy Hoffa!"
Just as we were finishing up the pizza, Kayla stopped by our table! Kayla is a baker here and also creates the specialty cakes here at the bakery. She’s the one who created the Peoria Magazines cake that we featured on our first edition of “Let Them Eat Cake,” and she’s going to create a monthly cake for this ongoing series. The next one will be happening in mid-August, so stay tuned for that! In addition to her baking skills, Kayla’s also a musician who plays in the band, Thetah. They play live around town and have just released their first album! It’s called ‘024’ and you can see and purchase it by clicking right here.
Another friend stopped by our table and that friend is none other than Roxy Baker! Roxy’s part of the Morning Blend Show With Marc Alghini on WWCT. She’s great on-air and adds a fun dimension to the show. It’s on from 6AM to 11AM and you should tune in. It’s been rumored that Marc sometimes let’s a curse word fly out on-air, but that’s just a rumor...that Roxy started! Okay, it was great to see Kayla and Roxy, but now it’s time for...
Dessert! It’s always hard to choose something because everything looks so sweet and delicious in here! Jeanette and Tim got a strawberry tart and a thumbprint cookie and I can’t remember what it was that I got but it was sugary and delicious and perfect ending to a fun and tasty lunch!
On our way out we ran into Martha who was too busy to pose for the MBIP Camera (okay, she didn’t want her picture taken, but I took this one anyway!) but she did give us a copy of this wonderful book, “Bicycle Fever,” written by Steven Streight. It’s the history of Peoria bicycle racing and it’s not only a great read, it’s loaded with vintage, historical photos! Thanks Martha and thanks to Jeff and everyone at Trefzger’s for a wonderful pizza lunch and to Jeanette and Tim for joining me! You definitely need to try the savory item in the land of the sweet! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
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4416 N Prospect Road
Peoria Heights
309-685-9221
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Related Posts: Trefzger’s Bakery: The Sweetest Thing, The Sweetest Thing Part II, Part III, The Countdown Begins and Part IV, Home, Sweet Home!