Saturday, January 8th, 2011—Bar 363
Friday, January 7th, 2010—Bar 363
The Tartan Inn
First off, the old donation bell has rung twice today while I’m here in the home stretch! My friend, Torquil Scott-Dewar has sent in a generous donation of 30 dollars and included this message: “For beer and a couple of shots of Jager!” This isn’t the first donation that Torquil has sent in and I appreciate your generosity, my friend. However, I don’t think I’ll be doing any Jager shots, the last time I did those I ended up in jail. It’s a long story and one I’ll tell at a later date, but suffice to say, it wiped out the taste of Jager for good for me! Thanks, Torquil!
Steven Altemus sent in a generous donation of 50 dollars and his message simply stated: “For the finale.” Thank you so much, Steven! This bar crawl has not been cheap and every cent that was sent in was used in buying drinks for myself and people I’d meet. If for some reason you sent money in and I didn’t thank you, it’s because I get tons of spam email and maybe missed your notification from PayPal. Thanks to you all, I don’t think I could’ve afforded to keep going on my own limited fundage.
Okay, today I’m hitting the Tartan Inn. I’m here in Peoria and while there are lots of places to go to, my friend and Journal Star writer, Phil Luciano recommended this place, so you know it’s going to be a good stop (and if you missed Phil’s column yesterday which was about Peoria, New York and Yours Fooly, check it out here: “It’s A Wonderful Life.”) Plus it’s rumored that my old friend Joe Waugh may be stopping by, so let’s go check it out.
Here we are at the Tartan Inn. My mom grew up about a block from here.
It's just a little after noon, so there's plenty of seats at the bar, hey that guy looks kind of familiar.
And it's none other than Phil Luciano, bottle of Bud in hand (would you expect any less?) As noted yesterday, Phil is one half of the Markley/Luciano radio show, get the details of the show here: Markley/Luciano show.
But thoughts of Phil vanished as the pretty and friendly Val approached me with the first beer of the day.
Jimmy C. was seated next to me and he's a regular at the bar. He lives in the neighborhood and is a good guy.
And here's Gary, seated at the end of the bar. I didn't have to ask if he's a regular here, he's just got the look of one. Hey, after 362 bars you get to have a sixth sense about this stuff.
And here's Val and Gary, chatting at the end of the bar as I wander around and bug people with the 365 camera.
They have a state of the art dartboard in here.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're proud to introduce the musical stylings of Karen Carpenter! Okay, that was a little tasteless, but would you expect anything less from me?
Val pumps up the volume...
As Phil puts some tunes on the jukebox. The party is kicking into high gear now.
There's tables and stools up front, but I'm staying away from them right now, a little too bright for my tastes!
Check out the specials on the board, there's free hot pussy tomorrow. Damn, I'm going to miss that...and I love Chinese food.
Here's Mike at the bar who just got here to enjoy the afternoon's festivities.
It's starting to fill up in here.
Here's a trio of hooligans up to no good on a Friday afternoon. From left: Phil, Yours Fooly and Nate. Nate works third shift and lives in the neighborhood, as do a majority of the fine patrons in here.
And here's Justin! Justin's a fan of the 365 blog, so he immediately knew what pose to strike, excellent work, Justin!
And here he is, my old friend Joe Waugh! Joe and I have had many adventures in the past and I'd love to write about them, but I don't know if the statute of limitations is up on any of them. Thanks for coming by, Joe, I'm sure I'll see you and maybe some other Waughs before this is over.
Here's the legendary Peck with Phil at the bar. Peck's done a lot in his day and it turns out he was friends of my uncle Bill Wombacher. The two of them hung out at the Puff back in the day. Oh if only the Puff was still open, it would've made the bar crawl for sure. To Peck and my uncle Bill!
Here's a shot black and white shot of Peck behind the bar that Phil discovered somewhere. Let's just say that Peck is "mugging" it up for the camera.
And here's the lovely Val serving it up. As you can see, Justin is a little more than hungry. I wonder what that fellow has been smoking?
I was getting ready to go when Donna wandered in and posed with me for the 365 camera.
And here she is with Phil unleashing her inner Gene Simmons.
Okay, final shots are poured...
And drank! Thanks to everybody for stopping by and to the Tartan Inn and to Val for the hospitality, definitely a highlight on the old bar crawl! Cheers and good afternoon, everybody!
Review
The Tartan Inn is a nice neighborhood joint in West Peoria. It’s not fancy, but it’s clean and a nice, friendly place to have a beer or seven in. The patrons are an eclectic mix of mainly neighborhood locals, but strangers and newbies are treated friendly if you walk in with a smile on your face and maybe a few bucks to buy a few shots for some of the new friends you’ll make in here. If you’re lucky, Val is bartending and you’ll be treated to one of the prettiest and friendliest bartenders in the Peoria area. If you see Luciano, buy him a beer, tell him a story and the odds are you’ll get two beers back and three stories to boot. And his stories are always killers.
There’s a full bar with a good selection of bottled beers and a couple of draft selections to be had. There’s nightly drink specials and pizza and chips are available to soak up the suds. Sometimes hamburgers are passed out in here and other times the patrons are (hardy, har har!) And the sign on the wall guarantees that there’s free hot pussy...tomorrow. The story of my life!
428 N. Waverly
Peoria, Illinois
309-495-8149
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