Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, Agatucci’s and featuring special guest stars, Amber, Joe, Steve, Heather along with Danny and Tony Agatucci!

Now please welcome this week’s host, Agatucci’s!

Here we are at Agatucci’s and as you can see, it’s crowded in here, but we managed to snag a booth to sit in.

Heather is our friendly waitress and I’ve taken her picture in the past in here. It’s great to see her smiling face again!

We started off with an appetizer of the fried chicken dinner.

There’s the special guest stars of the evening passing it around.

From Top: Amber, Steve and Joe, great to have them along for the evening and thanks to Joe who drove us all to Agatucci’s.

The fried chicken was excellent, if you’ve never had their fried chicken you need to check it out. It’s a recipe that’s been handed down to four generations and it is so delicious!

After the fried chicken I went around and got the obligatory Agatucci’s photos of the backwards clock, the bar, the wine bottle lamps hanging over the booths, the photo of Danny and Tony with Jay Leno, the Aggie’s t-shirt and Tony and Danny Agatucci, the fourth generation owners of Agatucci’s and two of the nicest guys in Peoria and beyond!

Meanwhile, back at our table…

The pizza has arrived and it looks absolutely devine!

The pizza was fantastic as always!

We got the large special which has cheese, sausage, onions, mushrooms and green pepper.

It was absolutely delicious. There’s no other pizza like Agatucci’s and if you’ve never had it, you need to get over and try it.

It’s an iconic and legendary local Peoria pizza pie that’s been served up in this family-owned business since 1926!

Now it’s time for holiday treat! We went to the bar because it’s Tom and Jerry time at Agatucci’s!

Wait a second…not that Tom and Jerry…

This Tom and Jerry!

Every year around Christmas time, they start making Tom and Jerry drinks at Agatucci’s, served in antique mugs from the early 1900’s.

Here’s Danny serving one of them up to us…

And it’s such a delicious and satisfying warm drink.

It actually tastes like Christmas in a cup!

Last year Tony wrote the history of the Tom and Jerry drinks at Agatucci’s and here it is again!

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THE HISTORY OF AGATUCCi’S TOM & JERRY CHRISTMAS DRINKS BY TONY AGATUCCI

“The recipe came from our great grandfather. I’m not sure where he got it from but that’s the recipe we still use today.

The Tom and Jerry’s were first served at Aggie’s in the late ‘30’s, and seven of the original eight gold-trimmed mugs still survive, not bad for almost 90 years of use! That’s why we only serve the drinks in the original mugs to bar customers only—we need to keep an eye on them and keep them safe! We have another set of vintage mugs that are not quite as old that we serve to our friends dining at tables.

We start serving this classic holiday cocktail the week before Christmas and up until the first of the year. As restaurant owners, Danny and myself genuinely enjoy the happiness this tradition brings to our many friends that come in to share the Christmas joy! We love sharing the tradition with the our regulars that know and look forward to the annual Christmas Tom and Jerry’s. Another aspect is the large number of patrons that have never heard of the drinks. It’s always fun sharing the history and the Tom and Jerry’s to newbies!

There are commercial batters available for purchase at local stores, but they are nowhere close to our classic homemade version—don’t waste your time with that stuff!

These drinks have been a Peoria tradition for almost 90 years...think about that, 90 years! That’s an amazing tribute to so many generations of countless friends through so many years. There’s nothing like the perfect holiday drink shared with our true friends to celebrate the best time of year.

It’s our way of saying ‘Merry Christmas’ in a personal way to the many friends of Agatucci’s!”

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