Guacamole is usually served in a bowl with a side of tortilla chips, but at Good Spirits Bar & Grill, guacamole only comes one way: covered in a tortilla chip breading and deep-fried. The Farmer City bar on Main Street has a quirky menu of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, nachos, and specials. The food names are silly to say, and some dishes are straight up bonkers like the Total Nut Job, a burger with beef, bacon, sweet habanero sauce, and warm peanut butter. The restaurant serves a nutty-and-naughty ham sandwich (ham, cheese, pears, roasted walnuts, and maple-bacon dressing), fried chicken quesadillas, pimento burger-panini, build-your-own loaded waffle fries, and more. They even have three choices for little diners: I Don’t Know (mini corn dogs), I Don’t Care (chicken tenders), and I’m Not Hungry (cheese quesadilla).
Good Spirits Bar & Grill’s menu sounded too fun to pass up, so I took my husband and my oldest kid — who was practically dying to tell a server that he didn’t care — and drove to the restaurant about 40 minutes from Champaign-Urbana.
When we went for lunch, there were plenty of free parking spots along Main Street. The outside of the restaurant was unassuming, but inside, it looked renovated and modern.
The left side of Good Spirits Bar & Grill was the bar half, and the right was this pretty dining room. Original brick gave the place character, and string lights made it seem more like a restaurant than a bar. I liked the aesthetic.
There were all kinds of appetizers available: cheese curds, hushpuppies, onion rings, dill pickle fries, chips, nachos, and deep-fried guacamole.
To start, we ordered those enticing guacamole pops ($8), served with a side of Spirit sauce (bar’s signature sauce). The bowl had golf-ball sized, deep-fried guac pops, scoops of guacamole with a tortilla chip breading. The fried nuggets tasted like a heavy-handed scoop of guacamole on a flimsy chip, and since the guac tasted yummy, it was a great bite. The crispy corn-chip and corn-kernel batter did a good job holding in the creamy guacamole — which was warm from the fryer. The temp threw me a bit, but the familiar taste of ripe avocado with lime citrus and crispy tortilla brought me back.
We also ordered the tortilla chips and salsa ($6) appetizer. These house-fried chips had an interesting salty-sweet seasoning. I liked the big salt crystals on the chips — they tasted like the ones on soft pretzels, but I did not like the sugar in the seasoning. My kid did, though; he loved them. Our appetizer chips came with a chunky salsa with a nice heat and big pieces of tomato. We added queso ($2). The side of queso was gloopy, mild white cheese with flecks of pepper. While it tasted fine, I was a little sad to see it served in a styrofoam cup for dine in.
Good Spirits offered mains like salads, chili, patty melts, barbecue burgers, filet of fish on brioche, and more. There were so many things that sounded appetizing.
For my lunch, I ordered the Philly cheesesteak ($13.99), which came with a choice of side; I picked fries. This was one of the best cheesesteak sandwiches I’ve had in Illinois. Soft bread cradled thinly-sliced beef with grilled onions and bell peppers, all drizzled with liquid cheese. This cheesesteak‘s hot housemade cheese sauce (along with drippings from the beef) soaked the lightly toasted white bread, so the inside of the roll was a little soggy but a lot flavorful, delivering the distinctive beefy, cheesy deliciousness of a Philly cheesesteak. The sandwich’s beef had a great char especially the crispy, bacon-esque edges, which was tasty with the crunchy cooked veggies.
My son gleefully ordered the I Don’t Care ($8.99). This was the chicken strips option, served with a half-pan of fries. The chicken was salty, hot, and very battered. My kid enjoyed it. I nibbled a bite and was underwhelmed, but I’m not really a fan of chicken tendies by themselves. The same as mine, Good Spirits’ fries were great. The soft potato sticks had a textured, ultra-crispy crust, and we all liked them.
Lastly, my husband ordered the crazy peanut butter burger: the Total Nut Jub ($13.99), which had a choice of side; he picked tots. The Total Nut Job had a humongous half-pound beef patty with melted pepperjack cheese, strips of bacon, sweet habanero sauce, and warm peanut butter.
The char-grilled patty was thick and juicy like a backyard burger. The bacon and fried tots with the sticky-sweet sauce tasted like breakfast, and the peanut butter was like ka-blamo. It was a party in my mouth. The hot temperature of the burger melted the peanut butter, so it became a sweet, nutty icing that glazed the beef, bacon, and bun. And honey-habanero sauce sticking to salty bacon? It was crazy good. The wild combination of flavors — cheese, peanut butter, beef, bacon, hot pepper, toasty bread, and honey — was awesome albeit an absolute mess to eat.
We didn’t order any drinks besides water, soda, and lemonade (all served in Good Spirits-branded plastic cups with free refills), but the restaurant has a full bar offering beer, wine, and liquor drinks.
Overall, Good Spirits Bar & Grill was worth the drive. The prices were affordable, and we all liked what we ordered. The food was better than I expected a small town bar to serve, and the dining room was truly inviting. In terms of food fun and creativity, the Farmer City bar is nailing it. They could totally be serving a basic menu or even Butch’s Pizza, but someone in the kitchen is whipping up intriguing dishes, and I love to see it.
Frequently, the bar has off-menu specials like a picky chick sandwich (fried chicken, pickle chips, and ranch), a Thai-chili chicken taco with sriracha slaw, and more. For the full menu and deets about specials, follow the bar on Facebook.
Good Spirits Bar & Grill
314 S Main St
Farmer City
M-Th 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
F+Sa 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
