We’re taking a one day break from the bar crawling today to go to a party that the owners of Mike’s Tavern are having for their employees and the regulars that visit the bar on a pretty much daily basis. Who are the owners of Mike’s Tavern? Well, keep on scrolling and you’ll meet them in about three seconds!
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The Hosts of the Party and the Owners of Mike’s Tavern
Here’s Stephanie and Mark, the owners of Mike’s Tavern and the hosts of today’s party at their house here in Peoria! They’re both looking fabulous and they are such nice and friendly people!
They bought Mike’s Tavern back in 2020 in the midst of the Covid pandemic, so you have to applaud them for that! They took a few months to clean and somewhat redecorate Mike’s Tavern and they did a fantastic job of modernizing and cleaning up Mike’s, but keeping the charm of the original Mike’s Tavern intact.
The bar still feels like the Mike’s from the days of the past, but it also has a new and fresh feeling to it. That’s not easy to pull off, but Mark and Stephanie did and as a loyal fan of Mike’s Tavern, I appreciate what they’ve done for this historical and legendary West Peoria bar.
This is a wonderful party for them to be hosting to honor their employees and the regulars who inhabit Mike’s Tavern on an almost daily basis. And I’m honored that they invited me!
My friend Michelle was also on the guest list and you can find her at Mike’s Tavern on almost every afternoon and it was wonderful to see her, as always and she’s looking fantastic!
There’s some of the crowd in the garage and Mark is starting to grill some of the fabulous Ribeye Steaks that was part of the fantastic food on the menu for this afternoon’s party!
I wasn’t in blogging mode at the party, I didn’t know many of the people in attendance, so this is all of the photos that I took. I didn’t want to be running around taking photos and having everyone wondering who this guy taking photos is. Plus, I just kind of wanted to take the afternoon off!
Luckily, Stephanie took some photos and she sent them to me, so we’ll present those right here and right now!
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Stephanie’s Photos From The Mike’s Tavern Appreciation Party
There’s Stephanie’s parents, Jan and Mike. It was fabulous to meet them and they’ve lived in West Peoria for years and have enjoyed Mike’s Tavern years before their daughter and son-in-law took it over.
Jan painted the watercolor painting of Mike’s Tavern on their t-shirts and I used it for the image for the title graphic for this blog! That’s a beautiful painting Jan! Thanks for capturing the spirit of Mike’s Tavern in a painting!
Here I am with Mike and Mark. I’ve known about Mike’s Tavern my whole life due to the fact that my grandpa, Leo Seitz was a regular there for decades. Mike knew my grandpa, so it was wonderful to find that out!
The crowd was really enjoying this party and it was fun to meet everyone there!
There’s a pool in the back and people certainly enjoyed that on this hot afternoon! Their wonderful dog was loving the extra attention as well!
They had such a wonderful spread of delicious food that afternoon and everyone was loving it!
Thanks to Stephanie and Mark for throwing this fun and fantastic party for the employees and patrons of Mike’s Tavern! I had such a fabulous time and I’m honored to have been included on the guest list for this fabulous party and get together honoring the legendary and historical Peoria institution: Mike’s Tavern!
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Three Memorable Mike’s Tavern Links
Back in 2010, I was living in New York City and had the crazy idea to go to 365 bars in 365 days and document the whole adventure on a blog. Well, the project kind of blew up after the New York Daily News did a feature on it, the the U.P.I. Wire Service put it on an inernational wire and it went to every news agency in the world! I ended up on the Morning Show in Australia, which is their national Today show and papers all over the world carried the story.
After it blew up, everyone wanted to know what the last bar of the blog was going to be, everyone thought I’d pick some notable bar in New York City. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve known and loved Mike’s Tavern my whole life, so as the last day came near, I called the owner back then, Tony Ward and asked him if we could do the last day at Mike’s Tavern in West Peoria. He happily said I could and on January 9th, 2011, we had one of the biggest gatherings that Mike’s Tavern has ever had! It was one of the best days of my life and you can see the photos and the post by clicking right here.
After living in New York City for 19 years, I decided to move back to my hometown of Peoria, Illinois in October of 2012. I had pretty much accomplished everything I wanted to do in New York and felt like it was time to come back home to Peoria.
I had done two other blogs in New York after the original 365 bar crawl blog, Marty After Dark and Tripping With Marty. Both of those had been successful blogs and I had captured an audience in New York City. I wondered if I could become a popular blogger back in my hometown of Peoria, Illinois.
On December 10th, 2012, I launced Meanwhile, Back In Peoria… and I thought it would bring good luck by ending the first post with a trip to Mike’s Tavern, so that’s exactly what I did! Well, almost 14 years later, I’m still blogging, so I guess it worked!
Thanks to all of you who read this blog, it means the world to me and I appreciate you tuning in on a daily basis more than you will ever know!
You can read the first MBIP post and see the good luck visit to Mike’s Tavern by clicking here.
Through the years, people have continually asked me to repeat the 365 bars idea here in Peoria and I finally decided to do it again last January. However, this time I mentioned I can take a day off, like I’m doing today!
Of course I had to start this new 365 adventure at Mike’s Tavern and you can see the first post of this midwest 365 bar crawl by clicking right here!
And of course we’re going to end it at Mike’s Tavern on day 365 of this tour, so stay tuned for that! I’m guessing that’s going to happen in March or April of 2027.
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Thanks again to Stephanie and Mark for the wonderful party and for keeping Mike’s Tavern alive in West Peoria! We all appreciate your work and what you’ve done with the historical and legendary Mike’s Tavern!
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626 N. Cedar Avenue
West Peoria
309-674-1860
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