Feb 15, 2018 | Billy "Goat" Sianis
The happiest and healthiest person in Wise Guy’s corner is also the one who has been here the longest. Bob Borgstrom says, “When I was a teenager we’d go to hockey games at the Stadium, and between periods we’d sneak over to the original Goat. People were always four or five deep at the bar, so when we’d called out our drinks and pass over the money, nobody ever asked how old we were and that was a good thing. But boy, did that place smell. Really bad because of all the animals around.”
Bob and a couple of the other white-haired Billy Goat regulars remember all of the taverns and restaurants that used to pepper the neighborhood. And he remembers the day the Billy Goat opens: “It was painted a fire engine red. It was like sitting inside a firehouse.”
Read more stories like this in our book! Our good friend Rick Kogan wrote a complete history of the world-famous Billy Goat Tavern – A Chicago Tavern a Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream. This is the story of a real Chicago legend. It’s packed with tales that include:
- The antics of “Chicago’s Greatest Inn Keeper” – William Sianis
- The real story of The Billy Goat Curse
- Billy’s Nephew Sam Sianis
- The SNL skit that immortalized Sam and his tavern
- Mike Royko and the journalists who are regulars
Get it here! https://www.billygoattavern.com/product/book-a-chicago-tavern/
Jun 11, 2017 | Billy "Goat" Sianis, Michigan Avenue
Most days Billy “Goat” Sianis summons a favored few pals to his table in the V.I.P (Very Insecure People) Room. And, as old men do, he tells stories of the past, of his boyhood in Greece, and wild times on Madison Street.
These are stores those at the table know well. Most of then have told the stories in print: how one of Billy’s goats escapes into the city sewer system; how, when Billy is arrested for speeding, he so charms the cop that he isn’t given a ticket but rather a free lunch; how he is served with a draft notice when he is 70; about formally applying to NASA for the first liquor license on the moon; the time he gets hi shoes stolen while vacationing in Ireland; when he bails two midgets out of jail after the couple is charged with drunken driving after leaving the tavern.
Read about these stories and more in A Chicago Tavern a Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream by Rick Kogan. https://www.billygoattavern.com/product/book-a-chicago-tavern/
Feb 16, 2017 | Billy "Goat" Sianis, Madison
One morning in the early summer of 1934, a baby goat falls off a truck traveling east on Madison Street. Dazed and limping, it wanders into the Lincoln Tavern. Sianis sees the goat and sends one of his waiters out to get a baby bottle. While he is feeding the goat, a lawyer sitting at the bar suggests that Sianis adopt the goat, saying: “You’ll get a million dollars worth of free publicity.” This seems like a very good idea to Sianis since his cash register is taking in only seven dollars a day. David Condon, a Tribune columnist who becomes one of the most prolific and imaginative chroniclers of Sianis’ activities, writes that the tavern owner went to courts where” the attorney ad judge conferred. The judge paroled the goat ‘into the custody of William Sianis for life.'”
Immediately, Sianis renames his tavern the Billy Goat Inn and begins to grow a spade goatee to fit the part. There is a small patch of grass in the yard behind the tavern, and there the goat lives and happily nibbles, the first of many goats to call the place home. “All of the Chicago police, if they find a stray goat, and a long time ago there wre lots of goats wandering around, they bring them to my uncle,” says Sam. “They know that my uncle will take good care of the goats.”
…from the book A Chicago Tavern a Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream
Dec 6, 2016 | Cheezborger
We’ll save you a seat. We’ve been blowing the lids off Chicago since 1934!
Aug 8, 2016 | Cheezborger
Get your butt in here and grab a seat!
