It’s Sunday night and that means it’s time to go out in search of a swizzle stick, which is really just a cheap excuse to go to a bar on my favorite night of the week to go out. There’s a little dive bar nearby where I live called, Joseph’s Recovery Room that I happened to notice the other day while driving around. That was the bar that myself and my friend Tim ended up after ruining a show by Richie Havens here in Peoria. I haven’t been there since that night. Time to change that and see if we can finally score a swizzle stick in Peoria...or at the very least, find a bartender who actually knows what a swizzle stick is!
Here we are at this week's watering hole, Joseph's Recovery Room. The sign now says "Recovery Room" but I remember it as "Joseph's Recovery Room," so I'm sticking with that name. Let's go inside and see if anything else has changed in this joint.
Nice dark and a little on the divey side in here, just like I remember it from years ago!
Friendly bartender Kim serves up a beer with a wonderful smile. She's worked here for five months and told me the bar has been open in this location for over 30 beers...I mean, years.
Here's the back of the bar, no frills and no chills, just a classic dive bar look.
They have their own little nut hut, which reminds me of The Little Nut Hut in Mike's Tavern in West Peoria.
Brightly lit poker machines line the walls opposite the bar.
An in a Twilight Zone moment, it looks like I'm shooting a game of pool while taking this picture. Do do doo do do do doo doo...
I noticed a pay phone on the wall, something you don't see much these days and Tiffany and Nikki agreed to pose with it for the MBIP camera. Thanks, ladies!
And here's another piece of bar machinery you don't see a lot of, a cigarette machine. I searched all over Manhattan for one of these and came up empty-handed, but they're more plentiful here in Peoria.
From the looks of the machine, it's been here in the bar for quite a while. A real vintage blast from the past.
There's free soup up at the front of the bar. It makes me think of this picture and grateful that I'm gainfully employed again!
Here's a holy trinity of taps for the patent-pending taps for Spike photo.
There's a game room attached to the bar that's been added since I was in here about twenty-five years ago. I love the race car light over the first pool table!
Behind the pool tables is this lengthy champion shuffleboard table. How do I know it's a champion table?...
Because it says so on the sign! There's no false advertising at Joseph's Recovery Room.
Here's a shot of the dark bar from the opposite end.
I saw this trio of people and it looked like they were plotting something at their table, so I went up and said hello. From left to right meet Lisa, Clay and Rodney and it turns out they are planning an event that will unfold at the beginning of the next month. Rodney's a writer and comedian who's just moved back from Los Angeles and and he and Clay have teamed up to start some local comedy shows around town.
The first comedic venture
that these two are putting together is called, An Insane Night of
Comedy. They've teamed up with Coyote Creek and Catering Peoria to make this unique night of comedy happen. In addition to Rodney, comedian Jeff Blanchard will be headlining and legendary comic Lenny C. is going to be the MC. There's shows on Feb. 1st and 2nd
with dinner served up at 6:30PM by Catering Peoria. I'm going and hope all of you do too, Peoria needs events
like this and I'm happy to support them and thrilled to see people like
Clay and Rodney making things happen around town! All the details are here, be there or be L7!
Alright, it's swizzle stick time on this fine Sunday evening! Kim serves up the double gin and tonic and...
Wah wah wah waaah, no swizzle stick here, just a black straw. Well, we'll try again next week, till then, cheers and see you all tomorrow!
Joseph’s Recovery Room
802 West Pioneer Parkway
Peoria
309-691-9742
Further Reading: IMDb, Wikipedia and Good Reads.
Free Tickets To An Insane Night Of Comedy!
Clay and Rodney gave me two tickets to give away for The Insane Night of Comedy, if you want these tickets, the first person to ask for them in the comments section gets them!
