Okay, sometimes things don’t go exactly the way we want them to. I always say that doing a daily blog is like improvisational journalism, because you never know what’s going to happen and last Thursday was one of those days.
I had some errands to run in and around Oak Cliff Shopping Center. I parked my car, ran my errands, came back and my car wouldn’t start. Turned the ignition and nothing. After about five minutes of trying to start it, I realized it was dead and I’d have to get it towed to the place I take my car to get serviced at. The only problem was I was blanking out on the name of my car servicing place! And it was going on to 5pm and soon it would be closed.
Luckily, Stacy’s Book Rack is located in Oak Cliff Shopping Center and I’ve done some blogs from there. Stacy Hardin owns the shop and I ran into the shop and her husband Bub was behind the counter. He helped me Google the car service company in Pioneer Park and I was able to call them and get my car towed over there. So a huge thank you to Bub and Stacy’s Book Rack for saving the day for me! I appreciate your help and kindness as I was kind of flipping out!
The car was towed and my brother Tom came and picked me up and gave me a ride home. The only problem now was I had to get to a bar and I had no car.
Well, I’ve been saving a place to go for an evening when I couldn’t drive. I was saving it for a night of bad weather like a snowstorm, but tonight is the night I pull this place out of my back pocket.
We’ll just hike a couple blocks down the road here on University Street to…
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Bar Number 215: Chili’s, Thursday, September 17, 2026
Chili’s! One of the few chain restaurants I do endorse.
I used to come here for Xmas Eve back in the day and I’ll explain more about that in a minute.
After this rotten afternoon, I could use a drink, so let’s go inside and get this evening started!
Here we are inside and our destination is just over there to the left inside of this room, it’s…
The bar!
Let’s grab a seat and get settled in here and relax after a shitty afternoon!
Kayla was the super-cute and friendly bartender on duty and here she is serving me up an ice-cold bottle of Budweiser with a beautiful smile!
I explained to Kayla how I used to meet my friends here on Xmas Eve and I did a Google search looking for the last time we did that and got quite a surprise…
It appears AI knows all about myself and these visits all too well! The fact that it could gather this much information is a little scary! Big Brother appears to be watching and gathering data on all of us!
The last time we met here on Xmas Eve was back in 2019 and that was the 26th year of meeting here! You can see that post by clicking here. Okay, back to the present!
As I scanned the menu, I didn’t see chili on there.
I always get chili here at Chili’s because I love their beanless chili and it’’s named Chili’s after all!
Kayla confirmed the sad fact that Chili’s no longer serves chili. She said they discontinued the item last year because of poor sales. This is not my day or evening! Let’s just keep moving along here and hope we don’t get any other bad news!
Kayla took a photo of the beers on tap behind the bar and here’s a list of them along with a couple of bottled offerings you can order.
Here’s a shot from the other end of the bar.
Here’s some tables in the dining area, I chose these empty tables because I didn’t want the people eating in here wondering what I was doing taking photos of them.
I guess they’re trying to say their name is based on chili peppers now, hence this pepper art.
Is this jingle running through your head right now? Earworm alert!
Meanwhile, back at the bar…
Our dinner is starting to arrive!
I started off with an order of Skillet Beef Queso which comes with a ton of freshly baked tortilla chips. This is really a rich and tasty dish!
I also got an order of the Buffalo Wings and they were delicious! They were cooked perfectly, very juicy and and had just right amount of heat to them and a delicious Buffalo flavor.
This was a nice end to a pretty rotten day. Thanks to Kayla and everyone at Chili’s for the nice evening and tasty food!
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The Drinks
I had two well-deserved bottle of Budweiser. I would’ve had more, but with the way my luck was running that day, I probably would’ve gotten busted for public intoxication! I played it safe and had a few more beers when I got back to the MBIP World Headquarters!
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4825 University Street
Peoria
309-692-0468
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Bar List, Rules, Banner Art & Donation Link.
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