In 1967, three years after opening on Hubbard Street, Billy expands into an adjoining space to the west that had been a parking ramp. He hires workmen to put up wood paneling on the walls, and for one day at least, as Sun-Times columnist Tom Fitzpatrick describes it, the place “looked like your classic suburban recreation room.”
In this new room, with a champagne and caviar party, Billy unveils the Wall of Fame, dominated at its center by a hand-drawn portrait of Billy that dwarfs the photos on either side. These are the faces of 37 men and one woman who were once top-ranking newspaper editors, reporters and columnists; a couple of television personalities and one newspaper publisher; one mayor and a man who was the chauffeur for a Tribune editor.
There is probably not a person alive who can identify all of these faces.
Our original location on West Madison was pretty far west! The “King of Cowboys” once visited Billy Goat Sianis at the original Billy Goat Tavern on West Madison Street. Chicago hosted an annual rodeo at the Chicago Stadium across the street from Billy Goat Tavern. Many of the biggest movie cowboys of the time paid The Goat a visit, and none were bigger than Roy Rogers.
