Features » Dining & Recipes » You Gotta Eat

You Gotta Eat: Perdue's Grill

By WEEK Producer
July 13, 2012 Updated Jul 13, 2012 at 12:45 PM CDT

TREMONT, Ill. -- Half-price Sunday at a local grill has become so popular that the restaurant is doubling its space.

This week on You Gotta Eat, Joe Bennett takes us to Perdue's Grill in Tremont for a two-pound burger challenge.

Tim and Tracy Perdue opened their restaurant two years ago in a building that has now seen three centuries. An 1899 picture of the street corner is seen on the front of their menu, featuring classic American meals.

"We call it upscale bar food," said owner Tim Perdue. "We've got fresh tenderloins that we do here in-house, we hand-cut all of our steaks, it's fresh burger. None of the meat is ever frozen."

Perdue's Grill already has a following that's growing quickly. By noon, the place was packed. Not a seat in the house, unless you feel like taking one of the only empty stools at the bar.

"I get a little bit of everything, because everything is good. The pork sandwiches are good, they run daily specials. They're awesome," said regular customer Tim Tucker.

"I got a buffalo chicken salad," said customer Joe Venovich. "It's probably the best salad they got. It's not on the menu, but they'll make it for you."

"That's a taco salad. It's really good," said customer Marilyn Lindstrom. "It's too much. They give too much food."

Photographer Larry Foulk had the breaded pork horseshoe. They say their breaded pork is too good to be called a tenderloin. Larry was impressed that he finished his, so Joe tried to one-up him with Perdue's Double Pounder. Think of it as eight quarter-pound burgers. Finish it in less than 20 minutes and you'll get a free t-shirt.

Lunch, plus tip, came to $31.47, but I did order enough burger for the whole newsroom so you can expect an average lunch tab of $20.

Clearly, the Perdue's are all about portions. They're even doubling the space of their restaurant next month to include a banquet hall.

"We haven't even opened it yet, and we've got it reserved four times already," said Tim. "People are talking about Christmas parties and stuff like that."

Perdue's Grill is located at 201 South Sampson Street in Tremont. They are open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. They close at 9 p.m. on Sundays.

To submit a comment on this article, your email address is required. We respect your privacy and your email will not be visible to others nor will it be added to any email lists.