Billy Blanks and the cast of Celebrity Sweat were in Chicago filming an episode. They spent some time with Special Olympics Illinois and led a yoga session with the help of Kyle Hendricks from the World Champion Chicago Cubs. No trip to Chicago is EVER complete without a stop at the World Famous Billy Goat Tavern on Michigan Avenue!
Roscoe Village knows a great burger when they taste one! Our “Curse-Breaker” received the Critics Choice Award at Roscoe Village Burger Fest. The “Curse-Breaker” is our legendary double cheezborger topped with bacon, grilled onions, pickles and jalapeño. Now you can find the “Curse-Breaker” at any of our restaurant locations. You can also make one for yourself by bringing home NEW Billy Goat Burgers from Jewel-Osco!
In 1967, three years after opening on Hubbard Street, Billy expands into an adjoining space that used to be 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 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.
Learn more Billy Goat history in the book A Chicago Tavern a Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream by Rick Kogan: https://www.billygoattavern.com/product/book-a-chicago-tavern/
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/
In 1964, the original Billy Goat Tavern on Madison St. closed. By this time, the new place has been open for seven months in what was a quick-to-fail Chinese restaurant on Hubbard Street in the basement of the year-old Apollo Savings % Loan building. This gives the new Billy Goat Tavern a classy formal address, 430 N. Michigan Avenue, though the tavern is in the process of becoming a cave within a cave as construction begins on an upper level off Michigan Avenue, creating what is called the Plaza of the Americas. It will contain 25 flags, a patch of greenery, a huge statue of Benito Juarez, and will forever hide the Billy Goat from sunlight.
Nevertheless, this location delights the employees of the four newspapers who find themselves within crawling distance of the tavern: The Tribune and American, housed in a Gothic tower and its stocky sidekick on Michigan Avenue and to the west, in a seven-story modern building on the banks of the river at Wabash Avenue and meant to resemble a boat, the Sun-Times and Daily News.
The Magnificent Mile is the nickname given to historic Michigan Ave in downtown Chicago. From shopping to special events, the Mag Mile has a culture and ambiance all its own. Along with this history are some “Hidden Gems”. MagnificentMile.com has named Billy Goat Tavern one of the 10 Hidden Gems along the Magnificent Mile. Granted, we aren’t on it, we’re under it, but we’ll let that slide for such an honor.
“The next time you’re walking Michigan Avenue, don’t hesitate to head down the stairs at Hubbard street and step into the Chicago of yesteryear.”
~ Adam Skaf, magnificentmile.com
