The Billy Goat serves up a variety of good eats, but a hardcore Billy Goat patron orders the double cheeseburger.

When “Saturday Night Live” dedicates a regular sketch in your honor, you know you've officially made it. This is true for the Billy Goat Tavern, a Chicago institution that inspired former Chicago Second City comedians John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray to poke fun at the thick-accented short-order cooks who can still be heard barking: “Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! No Pepsi, Coke!”

The tavern's popularity has grown so much that, according to Bill Sianis, co-manager, everyone from actors and politicians regularly visits the original tavern on lower Michigan Avenue, as well as its four other locations in the Chicago area. From Hillary Clinton to George W. Bush, patrons are all treated to the same eccentric approach to order taking. “It's nice to know people come from all over the world to visit us,” says Sianis, who is late founder William “Billy Goat” Sianis' great nephew and current owner Sam Sianis' son.

The hype around Billy Goat means “something interesting happens almost daily,” Sianis admits. On the other hand, there are always those normal days when it's all work with a strong emphasis on interacting with the people. Sianis has adapted well to the electric atmosphere of Billy Goat. “I grew up in this place—it's kind of like a second home,” he says.

Expanding the Legend
Billy Goat's choice to open a sixth location in Washington, D.C., was Sam Sianis' idea. “He always wanted to see what it could do outside of Chicago,” the younger Sianis says. “It was difficult to do it with six young kids, but now that we are older we can help him take a chance at least this once. Then we got this opportunity in D.C. by the National Association of Realtors and we decided to try it.”

This isn't the first time Billy Goat has had the opportunity to grow outside of the state. “We've had offers in Florida, New York, Texas and California,” he says. “At the time, it was just my dad, Sam, running the place and he just wanted to stay local. Now he has six kids out of school all helping with the business.”

The tavern chain is playing it by ear for future expansion. “We're not doing this big, 100-location expansion or anything right now,” Sianis says.

The Billy Goat serves up a variety of good eats, but a hardcore Billy Goat patron orders the double cheeseburger. The chain sells 300 to 1,000 cheeseburgers per restaurant per day, according to Sianis, and goes through about 50,000 during the 10-day annual Taste of Chicago summer festival. “It's a good sized-number,” he says.

The restaurant also sells many ribeye steak sandwiches. Overall, through, menu development is not an aggressive strategy for the restaurant. “Not much has changed over the years,” Sianis says. “People like it the way it is.”

A Tradition Continues
The original Billy Goat Tavern location was born in 1934, when Greek immigrant William “Billy Goat” Sianis purchased the Lincoln Tavern, which was located across from what is now the United Center and attracted mainly sports fans. Sianis became known as “Billy Goat” when a goat fell off a passing truck and wandered inside. Sianis adopted the goat, grew a goatee, acquired the nickname Billy Goat and then also changed the name of the bar to Billy Goat Tavern. In 1964, Billy Goat moved his tavern to its present subterranean location on lower Michigan Avenue.

It's no surprise that over the years, Billy Goat has acquired many long-time vendors. The key to strong partnerships, Sianis says, is as simple as paying them on time and communicating its needs. “Our vendors continue to work with us because we've had so many years with them,” Sianis says. “They provide whatever we need, but it's a give-and-take thing. We both work with each others' needs.”

Family is also very important to the Billy Goat franchise. “Even though we have six locations, we all still visit all of them to let people know who we are,” Sianis says.

Working on site is key to keeping the tradition alive. “We don't just walk in and sit; we actually work,” he says. “We try to make all of the locations like the one on Michigan Avenue. And for regulars, we try to know them by first name.”

Curses!
Billy Goat also has a deep-seated place in Chicago baseball culture. From 1876 to 1945, The Chicago Cubs were one of the most successful baseball teams in the country. The team's success would come to a screeching halt in game four of the 1945 World Series. The Cubs entered game four of the World Series leading the Detroit Tigers two games to one, and needing to win only two of the next four games played at Wrigley Field.

Cubs fan Billy Sianis bought two tickets to game four. Hoping to bring the team good luck, he took his pet goat, Murphy, with him to the game. The pair were denied entrance with ushers citing no animals allowed in the park. Upset, Sianis said the Cubs would never win a World Series so long as the goat was not allowed inside. Subsequently, the Cubs lost game four and the World Series. This led to what is believed to be a long-standing curse that lives on to this day.