n 87 37 28 w 41.890284 n 87.624488 w 41.890284 ; 87.624488 the billy goat tavern on michigan avenue the billy goat tavern is a chain of taverns located in chicago illinois . its restaurants are based on the original billy goat tavern founded in 1934 1 by billy sianis a greek immigrant . it achieved fame primarily through newspaper columns by mike royko a supposed curse on the chicago cubs and the olympia cafe sketch on saturday night live . it now has several locations in the chicago area including navy pier the merchandise mart o hare airport and the west loop on madison street just blocks from the united center and expanded to washington d.c. in 2005 . the d.c. location is the first outside the chicago area and is intended to appeal primarily to chicago transplants as well as students from the georgetown university law center located across the street . 2 contents 1 history 2 cubs curse 3 olympia cafe 4 references 5 external links history edit the first location at 1855 w. madison st. was opened in 1934 when william billy goat sianis bought the lincoln tavern near chicago stadium for 205 with a bounced check he made good on it with the proceeds from the first weekend they were open . when the 1944 republican national convention came to town he posted a sign saying no republicans allowed causing the place to be packed with republicans demanding to be served . of course a great deal of publicity followed which sianis characteristically took advantage of . 3 in 1964 the eatery moved to its current address at 430 n. michigan ave. which is actually below michigan avenue made possible by chicago s network of multilevel streets in that vicinity . 3 being situated between the offices of the chicago tribune and the old chicago sun times building led to the tavern s being mentioned in any number of newspaper columns particularly those of mike royko . in the 1970s sianis petitioned the mayor of chicago richard j. daley to issue him the first liquor license for the moon . his hope according to the letter that currently adorns the establishment s wall was to best serve his country by serving delicious cheeseburgers to wayfaring astronauts as well as raising moon goats . on new year s eve 2005 the tavern fittingly held a farewell party for the city news service successor to the famed city news bureau of chicago whose reporters were a fixture at the billy goat for decades . a small sign commemorating america s first news agency still hangs near the northwest wall . 4 in what he said he hopes becomes a tradition illinois s republican junior u.s. senator elect representative mark kirk met with his defeated democratic opponent alexi giannoulias for 20 minutes at the chicago tavern following the bitter campaign and a tight election where both sides had made each other s missteps very public . cubs curse edit main article curse of the billy goat the tavern is also known for its involvement in the curse of the billy goat also known as the cubs curse . owner sianis brought a pet goat a tavern mascot to game 4 of the 1945 world series a home game at wrigley field against the detroit tigers . despite paid for box seat tickets cubs owner philip k. wrigley allegedly ejected sianis and goat due to the latter s odor . supposedly sianis placed a curse on the team that they would not win another pennant or play in a world series again . olympia cafe edit main article olympia cafe another sign reads cheezborger cheezborger cheezborger . no pepsi . coke these words with pepsi and coke in reverse order were originally popularized by john belushi in olympia cafe an early saturday night live sketch that was inspired by the tavern . 5 it was bill murray and sketch writer and bit player don novello who were the regulars at the billy goat ; belushi and murray were natives of the chicago area and novello had moved to chicago in the 1960s . references edit notes some sources say 1934 . restaurants pdf . georgetown law continuing legal education . retrieved january 15 2016 . a b our history birth of a chicago legend . world famous billy goat tavern & grill . chicago tribune olympia cafe . saturday night live transcripts . further reading rick kogan 2006 . a chicago tavern a goat a curse and the american dream . lake claremont press . isbn 978 1 893121 49 2 . external links edit billy goat tavern official website video of billy goat tavern in d.c. v t e chicago cubs formerly the chicago white stockings chicago colts and the chicago orphans based in chicago illinois franchise history seasons records no hitters players managers owners and executives broadcasters opening day starting pitchers first round draft picks ballparks 23rd street grounds lakefront park west side park i south side park west side park ii wrigley field renovations spring training whittington park plant field rendezvous park blair field hohokam park sloan park lore babe ruth s called shot the inning gatorade glove play homer in the gloamin the sandberg game fall of 69 1998 home run chase brock for broglio merkle s boner worst to first monday saves the american flag college of coaches ken hubbs billy jurges incident game 163 culture curse of the billy goat billy goat tavern ex cubs factor steve bartman incident grant deporter tinker to evers to chance rookie of the year this old cub ronnie woo woo wrigley rooftops wrigleyville wayne messmer yosh kawano mike royko holy cow wrigley company hey hey holy mackerel bill holden bleacher bums the heckler arne harris go cubs go the natural 1984 film all the way cubs win flag eamus catuli addison red line station sheridan red line station taking care of business 1990 film clark street addison street a league of their own take me out to the ball game the cubs fan s guide to happiness pat pieper the cubby bear harry caray s italian steakhouse bohemian national cemetery columbarium clark back to the future part ii rivalries st. louis cardinals milwaukee brewers chicago white sox key personnel owner family of joe ricketts ; operated by tom ricketts president of baseball operations theo epstein general manager jed hoyer manager joe maddon world series championships 2 1907 1908 national league championships 16 1876 1880 1881 1882 1885 1886 1906 1907 1908 1910 1918 1929 1932 1935 1938 1945 division championships east 1984 1989 central 2003 2007 2008 2016 wild card 1998 2015 minor league affiliates iowa cubs aaa tennessee smokies aa myrtle beach pelicans a adv. south bend cubs a eugene emeralds short a arizona league cubs rookie dsl cubs 1 rookie dsl cubs 2 rookie media comcast sportsnet chicago wgn sports wgn tv wls tv wpwr tv wscr 670 the score current cubs radio network seasons 145 1870s 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title billy goat tavern & oldid 743339845 categories 1934 establishments in illinoisgreek american culture in chicagohistory of chicagorestaurants in chicagodrinking establishments in chicagochicago cubsrestaurants established in 1934hidden categories coordinates on wikidataofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 05 20 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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