What the Hell is wrong with these people? They had a perfectly good location located across the river. Then they opened a site up in North Peoria amongst white-bread Dunlappers. Then they moved that site to the Shoppes at Grand Prairie (hrmph!) and then planned to move back across the street … and then abandoned that idea. Meanwhile, the East Peoria marina site is closed and soon Peoria will have NO Famous Dave’s anywhere.
Good riddance. Peoria has enough home-grown BBQ joints to keep us supplied in delicious pigs on a stick. I suggest we tell these corporate clowns we don’t appreciate being jerked around and that we realize they are trying create an artificial BBQ shortage in Peoria.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
No Famous Dave’s?? Christ! I hexed them about 4 months ago. Their service at the anal grand prairie started to slip. I loved the East Peoria location and still don’t understand why it closed. There was always a wait to get in.
Agreed! Bunch of idiots.
But, oh, how I loved that spicy BBQ sausage….those selfish bastards.
Cat basically subsidized the E. Peoria location. I never ate at the place without there being a Cat group there, as well. What else did they need?
Well if Famous Dave’s builds, that is to be seen. I heard the Outback was going to build….never happened yet
This happens with donuts too! I noticed there’s a fence around where they were to build the Krispy Kreme near Glen and War Memorial, protecting all the brick and wheel barrels that were left abandoned. At least it’s not a complete building left vacant.
They got a Krispy Creme Drive in Normal. This is a typical of doing business in Peoria. don’t worry though, some councilpeople can walk to Whitey’s. At least we have that.
The Krispy Kreme is in Bloomington, actually, and is a franchise owned by Sweet Traditions, LLC. There are plenty of examples of Peoria not being business-friendly, but this isn’t one of them. Peoria’s lack of a Krispy Kreme franchise has nothing to do with Peoria’s business climate and everything to do with Krispy Kreme’s financial troubles, including Sweet Traditions’ $58 million in debt and inability to pay Krispy Kreme the $2.4 million they owed as of July 2005. There have been lawsuits, allegations of accounting irregularities within Krispy Kreme, and all kinds of stuff. Peoria was an innocent bystander in this one.
And what’s wrong with walking to Whitey’s?