Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s a Special Saturday 4th of July edition post staring hosts, Emo’s Dairy Mart, The Ice Cream Shack, Lou’s Drive-In and The Spotted Cow.

Now, please welcome, the first host of the day, Emo’s Dairy Mart!

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Emo’s Dairy Mart

First off, happy 4th of July, everyone! Since it’s a holiday and since it’s a summer holiday, I thought we’d do something special.

For me, the 4th of July means that summer has really arrived and nothing says summer like ice cream stands!

I thought that on this 4th of July, I’d hit four Peoria ice cream stands and get a vanilla milkshake and an order of chili-cheese fries and see who has the best in these sweet and savory categories.

Our first stop is Emo’s Dairy Mart, with the patent-pending creepy-ass clown staring down from the rooftop!

I approached the window and Kira was working there and agreed to pose for a picture holding the MBIP card after taking my order.

What a beautiful smile!

I went and sat at the picnic tables off to the side of the building and sampled the vanilla milkshake.

It was sweet and creamy and a delicious milkshake, we’re off to a tasty start at the beginning of this 4th of July food sampling tour!

And now we’re up to our first order of chili-cheese fries.

These are packaged nicely but as we open them there’s just a slight problem. There’s a cheese to chili ratio problem. There’s way too much cheese versus chili on this order.

Don’t get me wrong, they taste great, but it’s all cheese and you can’t taste the chili at all.

Okay, let’s keep moving along to the next host for the day and that host is…

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The Ice Cream Shack

Here we are at The Ice Cream Shack which is located on Adams Street in downtown Peoria.

I love the Betty Boop clock hanging along with their logo adorned on top of the building.

Lavina and Allie were working the counter and they took my order with cute smiling faces!

There’s a nice park-like atmosphere in here with stone tables to sit at, so I settled in to one and sampled this stop’s vanilla shake.

It was a tad sweeter than the one at Emo’s and it was a thick, creamy and delicious milkshake. Nice!

The packaging is identical to Emo’s but once you open it, there’s a world of difference.

This has a perfect ratio of chili versus cheese! It’s half chili and half cheese and the cheese has a nice rich flavor and the chili has a nice and spicy zing to it.

These are really delicious chili-cheese fries! Bravo, Ice Cream Shack!

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Lou’s Drive-In

Here we are at Lou’s Drive-In and there’s the iconic Lou’s Drive-In sign that faces Knoxville Avenue.

As you can see, it’s busy here, but there’s plenty of seats in the island where I like to sit at.

Here’s the trio of pretty Lou’s girls working on this day, from left: Caroline, Katie and Emma. Great to meet all three, Lou’s has the friendliest people in the world working there!

The vanilla milkshake was thick, creamy and oh so good! Really sweet and a tasty treat!

The chili-cheese fries had a unique presentation of giving you a tub of cheese and chili.

This allowed for perfect rationing, however both the chili and cheese were a little bland.

There wasn’t a lot of zip and zing happening in either tub and while it wasn’t horrible, it was just a little tasteless.

Okay, let’s move along here.

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The Spotted Cow

Here we are at The Spotted Cow, which has been serving up great food and homemade ice cream for over a decade at this local Peoria location.

As we walk in we notice the over-size pig farting in the small cow’s face. It always makes me cringe!

I ordered at the counter and the person who took my order was a little shy and didn’t want her picture taken.

Hey, it happens and this is why I always ask before taking a photo.

I settled in at this booth and was promptly presented with my vanilla milkshake.

Wow, this was such a rich, thick and creamy milkshake! It was topped with whipped cream and a cherry and it was such a sweet treat!

I loved it!

They don’t have chili-cheese fries here, but they do have Loaded Cheese Fries which are hand-cut fries topped with a cheddar cheese sauce and crispy bacon. You can also get sour cream, but I passed on that.

Holy moley were these some delicious fries! They’re fresh-cut in-house and the cheese is rich and creamy and the bacon is smokey. savory and delicious!

The fries were crispy and this was the most tasty dish I had all day!

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The Best Of the 4th Of July Ice Cream Tour: The Vanilla Milkshake

All of them were delicious, but The Spotted Cow was definitely the best.

They have the best milkshakes in Peoria and beyond in my opinion!

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The Best Of the 4th Of July Ice Cream Tour: the Chili-Cheese Fries

I enjoyed all of them, but the best chili-cheese fries I had were at The Ice Cream Shack. They had a perfect ratio of chili and cheese and the chili and cheese had a nice zip and zing to it.

A really tasty order of chili-cheese fries!

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