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Meanwhile, Back In Peoria...

A Travel Blog In And Around The River City With Your Host, Marty Wombacher

March 24, 2026

A Guy Walks Into 365 Bars…Again! Bar Number 72: Lucca Grill

by MBIP


Okay, it’s time to hit the road for the 72md bar and when I say, “hit the road,” I truly mean it because today we’re going to Bloomington, Illinois on a Scott Turley Road Trip!

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Bar Number 72: Lucca Grill, Sunday, March 22, 2026

And we’re off and running to Bloomington, Illinois!

There’s the MBIP Wheelman, Scott Turley behind the wheel and steering us to our 72nd bar of the 365 tour.

And through the power of the interwebs, here we are already!

Today’s destination is the historic Lucca Grill which has been in business here in Bloomington since 1936. There’s Scott leading us in!

Wow, the bar was just about full, but Scott found us two seats at the end of it.

There he is all settled in and ready for a fun afternoon of drinking and dining at the Lucca Grill!

Tater was the lovely and friendly bartender on duty and here she is delivering me an ice-cold bottle of Budweiser. I love it when that happens!

She took our dinner order and now I’ll take a few photos while that’s being prepared.

As you can see, it’s a well stocked bar and there the seven beers on tap behind the bar.

Tables line the wall opposite the bar and I love the tin ceiling in here!

The walls are loaded with pennants, photos and memorabilia from days gone by. It’s like a museum in here!

Tater pointed this photo out to me hanging behind the bar, it’s one of the founders of the Lucca Grill, one of the Baldini Brothers with John F. Kennedy sometime in the early ‘60’s. Very cool and historic photo!

Scott’s brother, Jerry Turley makes very cool clocks and he has three that he made for the Lucca Grill hanging on the walls in here!

Jerry made me a Joan Jett clock that is haning on the wall in the MBIP Headquarters and you can see it by clicking right here and scrolling down the post.

Meanwhile, back at the bar…

Our Sunday dinner at the Lucca Grill is starting to arrive!

We started off with an order of the barbecue chicken wings. They were juicy and tasty and there’s Scott with the infamous Turley bite, take one!

And here’s the main courses for our Sunday dinner: Scott got spaghetti with an Italian sausage and I got a ten inch pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and cooked well done.

The food looks amazing!

There’s Scott digging into his meal and there’s the patent-pending Turley bite, take two!

I added some Cholula hot sauce to the pizza and it was so delicious and tasty!

The crust is paper thin and it was a delightful pizza pie! If you’ve never had a pizza here at Lucca Grill, you need to get to Bloomington and try one out. It’s well worth the drive!

I mentioned Jerry Turley earlier and as we were getting ready to leave, who walks in the door? The clock-master himself, Jerry Turley!

Great to see him and there’s the Turley brothers at the bar, trouble times two!

Thanks to Scott for driving us to bar number 72 and thanks again to Jerry for the Joan Jett clock!

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The Drinks

I had a lovely trio of Budweisers on this fine, Sunday afternoon!

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Lucca Grill

116 East Market Street

Bloomington, Illinois

309-828-7521

facecrack page

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Bar List, Rules, Banner Art & Donation Link.

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——

I’m going mobile…

Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!

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