The Billy Goat Tavern - Chicago, Illinois

The Billy Goat Tavern has a been a Chicago landmark for decades. The iconic restaurant was put on the food map long before the Food Network started making restaurants a travel destination. The restaurant, which has been around since 1934, became a local landmark after a sketch on Saturday Night Live featuring the restaurant (there are other reasons it became a landmark, but most folks are going to recognize it from Saturday Night Live). In recent years, the restaurant has branched out to other locations. But there is just something special about the original hole-in-the-wall burger joint located on the lower level Michigan Avenue at 430 N. Michigan Ave, where it has been since 1964. It was previously located for thirty years at 1855 W. Madison.

In the Saturday Night Live sketch, John Belushi famously quoted the restaurant "cheezborger, cheezborger, cheezborger. No Coke, Pepsi." In reality, they serve Coke products not Pepsi. The sketch also includes the line "no fries, chips." This remains true at the original location, although other locations now serve french fries.

My friends and I arrived at the small, below ground restaurant a few nights ago for their indoctrination. Of course, being my age, they knew the schtick...although they were surprised to find the restaurant served coke products. They also serve beer, which is what both of them opted for. Drinks from the bar are ordered separately. The burger counter includes a few other options, but I felt obligated to get the cheezborger, the only thing I have ever ordered at my handful of visits to this restaurant. The burgers are cooked fresh on a flat top behind the counter. There is a small fixings bar located at the end of the counter where guests can dress their burger with several traditional toppings (ketchup, mustard, excellent pickles, thickly sliced onions and lettuce.

The restaurant is kind of campy. The walls are adorned with aging artifacts that hearken to the restaurants past. Yellowing posters recall letters sent from the restaurant founder, Billy Sianis, requesting the Chicago Mayor and the United States Attorney General to provide Sianis with the first liquor license on the moon. There are posters and plaques of local sports figures of years gone by as well as Belushi and Akroyd who helped make the restaurant famous. It seems every square inch of wall that can fit a plaque or picture is covered, giving the restaurant a delightfully tacky and somewhat run-down appearance. Don't let the looks deceive you. The service is excellent, the food is tasty and the prices are very reasonable for a joint in downtown Chicago.

Any foodie trip to Chicago should include three Chicago staples. Deep dish pizza (butter crust), Italian beef and a Chicago-style hot dog. There are places I could recommend for each, but Billy Goat Tavern is not among them. I recommend this restaurant as an iconic destination where I would recommend a regular old cheezborger. There is nothing distinctly Chicago about the burger. It's the ambiance of this place that I recommend. It's a dive. But it's a historic dive worth visiting. At least once.

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