Drake’s (O’Fallon, IL)
1160 Central Park DriveThe only thing the kids wanted for Christmas was tickets to the US Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. As soon as the event was announced, they started their campaign. “It can be our only present!”
Ticket packages went on sale way back in July of last year. We made the purchase then had to keep it a secret from them until Christmas morning. I still can’t believe neither of us let it slip although my mom came very close to tipping off B about a week before Christmas. For once, it was a good thing he had his nose buried in his phone and didn’t hear what she said.
We bought the weekend package which included tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday was pairs and women’s free skates. Saturday was free dance and men’s free skate. Sunday was “Making the Team” where they announced the selections for this year’s Olympic team.
The kids would have preferred we went for the whole week but we couldn’t miss that much school and work. The plan was to leave Thursday afternoon so L could at least go to her morning classes and J could get in to the office for a few hours before we left.
When we bought the tickets, we booked a cheap hotel in Fairview Heights about twenty minutes from the Enterprise Center where the championships were being held. We got to town around 4:30, just as the Rhythm Dances were starting at the arena.
We sat in our hotel room and watched some of the competition on our phones since we didn’t have access to Peacock on the hotel TV. After about a half hour, I asked J if we were going to get dinner. I had been looking at nearby places on Google and found one I thought we’d all like.
We headed over to Drake’s on Central Park Drive west of Green Mountain Road in O’Fallon, IL. The restaurant has a pretty chain sports bar look and feel to it starting as soon as you pull in the parking lot. The restaurant is in a very commercialized area right off I-64 in between a couple of hotels.
Drake’s is a chain of about 30 neighborhood bar and grills. Most locations are in Tennessee and Kentucky. This location is the only one currently in Illinois. They actually advertise this location as Drake’s Shiloh but it’s in O’Fallon. I’m assuming they do that because there is also a location in O’Fallon, MO and that location is the only Missouri location.
We walked in to find a pretty typical sports bar set up. There is a huge bar with a wall of TV’s right as you enter the space.
There are several pub tables in this area and that’s where the hostess put us. There are other dining areas but we couldn’t see those from the bar area. The parking lot was pretty full though so I’m guessing the dining room was fairly full too and that’s why we were seated in the bar. It’s not a big deal either for us.
We got started with a couple of drinks. They had my usual Two Hearted on the menu but I did something different and ordered the Incarnation IPA from 4 Hands Brewing in St. Louis. I got the larger and it came is a Weizen glass which I don’t really love. I should have stuck to the smaller size and just gotten the pint.
We were in a sports bar but none of the TV’s were on the sport we wanted to watch. The CFP game between Miami and Ole Miss was about to start so we didn’t ask to change a TV. I figured that would not have been a popular decision to ask for a TV to be changed from the college football play off to figure skating so we just propped my phone up on the table and we all kind of gathered around to watch the final rhythm dance group while waiting for our food.
The menu at Drake’s is pretty typical sports bar with one unique addition. Sushi. None of us are sushi people so that wasn’t something we even considered but it’s still interesting.
I went straight to the burger section and picked the Mini Juicy Lucy’s. This basket comes with two mini double smash burgers topped with triple American cheese, parmesan garlic mayo and the classic lettuce, tomato, onion. The burgers were not actual Juicy Lucy’s which is a burger stuffed with American cheese. They just added a lot of cheese the smash burgers to make them a gooey, cheesy mess. The sandwich were really tasty and the smash burger had those smash burger crispy edges that makes smash burgers so deliciously tasty.
The burgers came with choice of sides. I picked the fries. They’re crinkle cuts with some salt and pepper seasoning on them. Nothing special but super crispy and delicious.
J wasn’t super hungry because we stopped at Wally’s in Pontiac for lunch. She got a pulled pork sandwich there and some chips so she wasn’t in the mood for a full dinner. Instead, she ordered the Drake’s Fried Pickles. She was excited about this because the order is pickle chips, not spears. The pickles are hand breaded and deep fried then served with “ambrosia ranch.” Even the small order was too much for her to finish on her own.
L went for Drake’s BLT…minus the T…and mayo. The sandwich comes on toasted country white bread and was still a pretty hearty sandwich with just the lettuce and bacon. She ate the whole thing before I even got a chance to ask her if she liked it or not.
L chose the Mac ‘n Cheese as her side. The small bowl comes with shell pasta covered in a thick cheese sauce and topped with more shredded cheese. Again, she polished this bowl off really quickly before J or I could ask for a bite.
B has been on a really big burger kick lately so he’s always excited to see burgers on a kid’s menu. The kid’s option is two mini smash burgers with a side. He gets the burgers plain so it’s just cheese and burger. These are good size burgers and the same size burgers as what I got except it is only one smash patty instead of two. He polished these two burgers off quickly. He got fries as his side but fries aren’t his favorite. He ate a few of them but I ended up eating most of them.
The cost for our dinner was right around $80 before tip.
I had never heard of Drake’s before I went looking for dinner after we got to town on Thursday. It’s a solid sports bar. It’s not too different from a lot of similar concepts on the market but the food was really good. I’m not sure we’ll ever come across one of these places again unless they expand further north. We had a really good meal though and that’s what we needed after a long travel day.
SW Michigan Dining 