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Ding, ding and ding! The donation bell rings once again as we received a 20 dollar donation from Aaron Eschmeyer!

Thanks so much for that generous donation, Aaron! Donations do help with the cost of doing this 365 bar tour and if you’d like to help out with the cost of beer, food and Ubers, just click here and click on the donate button at the bottom of the page.

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The other day I noticed this on the PJ Star website:

It was an article listing Schooners bar as the place that their readers voted for the best chicken wings in Peoria. I haven’t had their wings in quite some time and I thought that in light of this information, it would be the perfect place to stop at for our 31st bar of this tour.

Let’s go and wing it!

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Bar Number 31: Schooners, Monday, February 9, 2026

Here we are at Schooners, a Peoria tavern landmark that’s been standing tall in this spot for over 40 years.

Let’s go in and see what’s happening in here tonight.

There’s the bar and I spy an empty seat, so let’s get settled in here for the evening.

Candace was the pretty and friendly bartender on duty and she delivered a bottle of Budweiser with a beautiful smile. Things are off to a wonderful start in here and I ordered the award-winning chicken wings.

Seated next to me was none other than the founding owner and operator of Schooners, Greg “Gebby” Gebhards.

I thought that Schooners was the first bar in the area to serve up Buffalo Wings and he confirmed that thought. Gebby told me that his brother went to Buffalo, NY back in the ‘80’s and stopped in a bar and sampled an order of Buffalo Wings which were unheard of back here in the Midwest at the time.

He loved the wings and asked the owner for the recipe. The owner said that he was the first bar owner to nicely ask and not try to steal the Buffalo Wing recipe, so he gave it to him and they’ve been serving up that recipe here at Schooners ever since. They were the first Buffalo Wings in Peoria and we’ll be sampling them soon!

Gebby told me that the secret to the longevity of Schooners is to treat both patrons and employees like family. Cheers to that and it was a pleasure to chat and spend time and chat with Gebby!

There’s lots of history on the walls in here and behind the bar is a good example.

There’s the quartet of beers on tap and that t-shirt says it all: “I Love This Bar!”

There’s dining areas opposite the bar and directly behind it.

Check out the Mushroom Hall Of Fame on that wall, I was in a different mushroom hall of fame in the ‘70’s, but we won’t get in to that now.

There’s the soups and specials of the day and gaming machines line the wall over here.

Meanwhile, back at the bar…

Gebby’s son, Brad came out of the kitchen to say hi and he posed for a photo with his dad.

Brad is the manager and runs the kitchen here and it was great to see him again!

Brad not only came out to visit and chat, he also delivered up an order of the award-winning chicken wings.

Gebby gave me a tip to order them “Wild” and extra crispy and so I did just that.

These wings are so tasty and delicious!

They were crispy on the outside and so tender and juicy when you bite into them. The sauce is zippy and has just the right amount of kick and zing to them! No wonder they won the PJ Star chicken wing award!