Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! — the Chicago dive that became an SNL legend
Some Chicago stops are about white tablecloths and tasting menus. Others begin with a line you’ve been quoting for decades.
For my partner, Paul, Billy Goat Tavern was the latter.
Long before we ever planned this Chicago trip, he knew the place through Saturday Night Live — the relentless rhythm of “Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! No Coke, Pepsi!” that became one of the show’s most memorable sketches.
So when we realized we were just steps away on our walking tour down Michigan Avenue, stopping in wasn’t really a question. We wanted to see the place that had inspired the bit.
And there was something particularly satisfying about discovering that the real Billy Goat is every bit as wonderfully unpolished as the television version suggests.
A Greek Immigrant, a Goat, and a Curse
The tavern’s story starts with Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant who opened the original location in the mid-1930s. Billy Goat’s place in Chicago lore was sealed in 1945, when Sianis brought his pet goat — the tavern’s mascot and the source of its name — to Game 4 of the World Series at Wrigley Field. Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley reportedly had Sianis and the goat removed from their paid seats, allegedly objecting to the animal’s smell. Sianis, the story goes, responded by placing a curse on the team, declaring the Cubs would never again play in a World Series. Whether or not anyone truly believed it, the so-called Curse of the Billy Goat became one of the most enduring pieces of Chicago sports folklore, finally laid to rest only when the Cubs broke their championship drought in 2016.
The Sketch That Made It Famous
For as legendary as the curse is, it’s the tavern’s brush with Saturday Night Live that turned Billy Goat into a true national institution. Bill Murray and writer Don Novello were regulars at the tavern during their Chicago years, and Novello, then working as an advertising copywriter in the city, drew directly on its gruff, rapid-fire countermen for a sketch idea. The result, “Olympia Cafe,” debuted in 1978 and starred John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Novello himself as relentless Greek diner cooks shouting orders at customers whether they wanted them or not: “Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! No Coke, Pepsi!” Belushi and Murray’s own familiarity with the Billy Goat traced back even further, to their days performing together at Second City just up the road.
The sketch aired repeatedly over the years and transformed a humble basement bar into a piece of American pop-culture shorthand. Decades later, both Murray and Novello have continued returning to the tavern when in Chicago, and current and former SNL cast members still make a point of stopping by because of it.
The Experience Hasn’t Changed
Walking down the stairs into the tavern itself, you understand immediately why the sketch wrote itself. The ordering experience really does carry a version of that same brisk, no-nonsense energy: cheeseburgers, simply, are the entire point, fries are not really on offer in spirit even when they’re on the menu, and the whole operation moves with the kind of practiced efficiency that comes from doing the same thing exceptionally well for the better part of a century. It’s the kind of place that has resisted nearly every modern instinct to update itself, and that’s precisely the appeal.
Sam Sianis, Billy’s nephew, took over the tavern after his uncle’s death in 1970 and spent decades expanding it while keeping that original character fully intact. Sam passed away earlier this year at 91, a loss that closes out a remarkable chapter of Chicago history, though by every account the tavern continues on exactly as he and his family always intended it — loud, fast, and unmistakably itself.
Paul’s Take
For Paul, the appeal wasn’t really the cheeseburger. It was the moment of recognition — walking down those stairs and realizing that the place he’d known for years through a few minutes of television was an actual place, still operating, still serving burgers, and still sounding remarkably like the sketch that made it famous.
There was something satisfying about that kind of Chicago discovery: not seeing another famous attraction, but stepping inside a piece of pop culture he’d carried around in his memory for decades.
And yes, he ordered the cheeseburger.
Why It Belongs on the List
Billy Goat Tavern isn’t trying to compete with the city’s tasting menus or skyline-view dining rooms, and it doesn’t need to. It earned its place in Chicago history through sheer personality — a curse, a comedy sketch, and a cheeseburger that’s been served the exact same way since before most of its current customers were born. If you only have time for one piece of pure Chicago folklore on your trip, make it this one.
For the rest of where we stayed, ate, and explored on this trip, look for the complete Chicago guide coming soon to The Insider’s Guide. In the meantime, stay tuned for my next blog post in this Chicago series.
