I read a few months ago that The River Station was re-opening up downtown. I made a mental note to go and see if there was a bar inside of it for this tour and then never followed up on that thought.

Well, I recently heard of something happening there and I decided to go downtown and check it out. What was happening there? Well, just keep on scrolling and you’ll find out!

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Bar Number 249: The River Station, Thursday, October 29, 2026

Here’s what was happening at The River Station last Thursday: The Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation (CILF) was celebrating their 50th anniversary with a cocktail party at The River Station.

That sounded like a perfect place to go for our 249th bar of this 365 tour, so it’s off to downtown Peoria we go!

I haven’t walked this trail to The River Station in decades! It’s exciting to return to this place!

Let’s go inside and join the party happening in here!

Wow, it looks just like I remember it! As I walked inside to the front room, I saw this sign announcing tonight’s CILF anniversary party in here.

It’s so cool to be inside of here again. It brings back a lot of memories from past dining expariences in here.

Here’s Molly Crusen Bishop and her husband, Doug.

Molly is the President of CILF and Doug is the Treasurer. We had a nice chat and then I had to get to blog business and find the bar in here! It was wonderful to see both of them!

It didn’t take long to find the bar in here, it’s right over there!

I strolled up and took a couple photos and ordered a beer. Yes, I am a multi-tasker!

Caylee was one of the pretty bartenders on duty and here she is serving me up a bottle of beer with a fabulous smile!

Here’s a shot of the bar from the other side. It was doing quite the business on this evening, lots of thirsty people are in attendance!

It was so cool to soak this place back in and it really triggered the old memory banks from days and dinners gone by!

CILF had a really nice collection of photos of landmarked houses and historical buildings in Peoria on display in here.

I met Michy Maloof who’s a CILF Board Member and had a nice conversation with her. I asked if she was any relation to Peoria’s former Mayor, Jim Maloof and she told me that was her Grandfather.

Michy’s in the family’s real estate business and you can check her page out by clicking here. It was great to meet Michy!

I was admiring this photo of Trefzger’s Bakery which is a landmarked historical building and then I turned around and saw…

Jeff and Martha Huebner, the owners of Trefzger’s! They recently celebrated the 165th anniversary of Trefzger’s, which is Peoria’s oldest and most beloved bakery!

Always fantastic to see their smiling faces and we had a nice conversation at the party.

There was live jazz music by The Larry Harms Trio and they sounded fabulous!

Molly told me that she’s planning on reviving the Whiskey Baron run which was part of CILF in the past, so stay tuned for upcoming details on that!