5 /5 Joshua Daily: Iron Spike nailed it for tasty beer and food!
Traveling and exploring can be very taxing and you need to stop somewhere to refuel for the next adventure and that is exactly what we did at Iron Spike Brewing Company. Emily and I were full of coffee but running on E when it came to food, since it was around 1pm and we hadn’t had anything but the cinnamon roll at The Beanhive (which is like two doors over from here) for breakfast.
We dropped in and the place was fairly quiet for a Friday afternoon. I am guessing we missed the lunch rush, which is fine by me. A nice young gentleman sat us down and gave great service while we placed our orders for food and drinks. He was quick to bring out my Flatback IPA and Em’s Caboose Juice… which every time it was said out loud lead me to having a giggle fit. Maybe I was super hungry and getting slap happy or maybe I was just having a great time on a beautiful weather day with my girlfriend but its a fun combination of words regardless.
Emily ordered the Classic Smash Burger and I got the Black & Bleu Smash Burger. We both picked fries as our sides. I’d say our food came out in under 10 minutes, which was great since I was beyond starving and I could feel the few sips of my beer going to my head already. The food in front of us didn’t look like much, just a burger and fry but once we started digging in… I’m pretty sure both our toes curled.
The french fries are the first thing I started on and they had this nice chewy aspect that made them not feel like munching on air that a lot of other fries give. The burger didn’t look like much in the checkerboard wrapping paper but once I dug it out and got to eating it, it was the perfect accompaniment to my beer, having fun with my girlfriend, and the perfect weather. I found the bleu cheese being a stark contrast to the rest of the burger and wished there was a little bit less on it so the difference wasn’t as pronounced but that didn’t stop me from inhaling the burger in minutes. Emily said she was in love with her burger from the first bite to the last. She said it was a bit salty but that comes with the territory for smash burgers.
All-in-all, it was the best place we could’ve stopped for food and to kick our feet up for a bit. The waiter told us that the building used to be an old firehouse and once you look around, you really start to notice the small details that still remain from days of yesteryear.
Here is another fun tidbit. I took the photo above back in July 2016, thinking it would be a cool place to visit some day. Who knew it would only take about 9 years to finally get around to revisiting Galesburg to finally get the chance! Also, they do have free stickers if you ask your server for some.
