Alvis Backroad, Potter Pub & Brews Brothers

We decided to try out Alvis Backroad Bar and Grill in Tamaroa yesterday.  I didn't want to fight any holiday traffic and that seemed like a nice drive.  Until I was reminded it was DQ State Fair time when we already in Desoto.  Oh well, on we went.  We hadn't been past DuQuoin in quite a while so it was a nice drive.
I only had a general idea of how to get there but figured it's Tamaroa how hard can it be to find.  Mike did check directions while we were searching so we didn't have any problems.  It's in town so backroad is a bit of an overstatement but it is off the beaten path. 
Really nice interior with a lot of old signs and such.  I went up thinking burger and stayed with the plan.  Biggest downside is they were out of bacon so both Debbie and Lisa had to change their order.  They only had 3 or 4 taps but they did have Stag so that's what I got.  My burger was really good and appears to be made to order instead of prepattyed or frozen.  I got mine with lettuce onion and pickle but took the lettuce off and should have got extra pickles.  The fries appeared to be frozen ones so were just decent.  Both Lisa and Mike liked their burgers and Debbie liked her wrap.  After we finished we ended up talking to the owners father, a very nice and personable guy.  Overall a great stop and we'll be back.
On our way home I spied another place in Tamaroa so we stopped in for a quick one.  I was surprised that the place was somewhat crowded with a bunch of guys playing pool.  Other than that it looked like a typical neighborhood bar at least until you visited the bathroom.  The wall was decorated with a poster featuring old Playboy pictures in various stages of undress.  Awesome.
We took 127 home to avoid DuQuoin.  We hadn't been to Brews Brothers in a while so we decided to stop.  There was a big group there mainly of people from Chester but there was a couple from carbondale.  Come to find out he is the head coach of the dreaded terriers football team so we had a little conversation with him about my old buddy Twink.  After a lot of back and forth about various things it was time to go home,