Two things I’ve missed during these rotten quarantine times are dining out with friends and live music.

So I thought we’d take trip back in time to the pre-pandemic year of 2015 when I enjoyed both of those things with a trip to one of Peoria’s oldest pizza parlors, Peoria Pizza Works.

Oh, Sherman…

Please set the Wayback Machine for June 26th, 2015 and…

Baboom, here we are at Peoria Pizza Works in the wondeful pre-pandemic summer of 2015.

My friends Jen and Clare joined me on this evening and we were going to have a pizza pie dinner and then enjoy the live music from the weekly open stage night that’s been a part of Peoria Pizza Works history for decades now.

Here’s our friendly and pretty waitress, Shaina serving me up a 22 ounce bottle of Budweiser! I think this is the only place I’ve ever gotten a 22 ounce bottle of Budweiser! Cheers!

There’s Gary, who’s the owner of Peoria Pizza Works and a friendly and nice guy.

Roy and Aaron are part of the house band for Peoria Pizza Works and they call themselves The Turkeys.

Roy is also the amazing lead guitarist for the band Brainchild who are based here in Peoria but are a nationally known and respected jam band.

Meanwhile, back at our table we got an appetizer order of onion rings and they were crispy and delicious.

But soon, the star of our dinner was delivered…

Check out this giganzo cheese pizza that Shaina delivered to our table!

Here we are digging into the pizza pie and it was delicious! I’m holding up my 22 ounce Budweiser which I’m still marveling at to this day almost six years later.

Peoria Pizza Works has been serving up delicious pizza for decades in Peoria and they also have been a host and friend to local live music as well.

Here’s photos from the open stage that Thursday evening and I’m happy to report that the Thursday Night Open Stage is back in play these days!

Open stage at Peoria Pizza Works has quite a history and i found out after putting up this original post that my friend Josh Bradshaw of the Jonny Quest band started hosting shows way back in 1997 and continued for 18 years!

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