Within a few steps of the place where the curse of the Billy Goat was born, a new Billy Goat has just opened, its wall covered with dozens of photos and artifacts that capture the history, lore and legend of one of our city’s most durable relationships, that between a baseball team and a goat.
Located at 3724 N. Clark St., in what for a couple of decades had been the Full Shilling Public House, the new Goat joins the increasingly frenetic playground and booze-fueled area that surrounds Wrigley Field.
Earlier in this century there had been a Goat a few blocks south but that closed after two years. “But it is nice to be back,” says Bill Sianis, whose family has long owned the Billy Goats. “It was always in our plans to return to the neighborhood. Maybe we are meant to be together.”
Others agree. The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce issued a statement about its excitement for “the potential for this legendary establishment to weave itself into the fabric of our neighborhood. The arrival of the Billy Goat Tavern in Wrigleyville signifies more than just the expansion of a beloved Chicago eatery; it marks the coming together of two iconic Chicago institutions — Wrigley Field and the Billy Goat Tavern.”
It’s possible — isn’t it? — that some people might never have heard of the curse? The tavern’s north room will inform them. The story is on the walls, traveling back to Oct. 6, 1945, and William Sianis, owner of a tavern known as the Billy Goat Inn on Madison Street across from what was then the Chicago Stadium.
On that day he brought his pet goat named Murphy to see the Cubs play the Detroit Tigers in the fourth game of the World Series. Murphy was wearing a blanket with a sign pinned to it that read, “We Got Detroit’s Goat.”
In short, the pair were not allowed to take their seats and they returned to the tavern. After the Cubs lost the series, Sianis sent a telegram to team owner Phil Wrigley, asking, “Who stinks now?” And so was the curse born, fueled by a combination of the Cubs’ ineptitude and the inventiveness of newspaper writers. It finally ended when the Cubs won game seven against the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series.
The southern room of the new tavern is devoted to the other source of BG fame: its many famous visitors, from presidents to movie stars, and some of the journalists who wrote of the BG, none more enthusiastically or artfully than columnist Mike Royko. Its walls also tell of the 1978 “Saturday Night Live” skit inspired by the “cheezborger, cheezborger” mantra at the BG and starring John Belushi, Bill Murray and Robert Klein. This room also contains the kitchen.
At an informal family-and-friends opening a couple of weeks ago, the crowd was peppered with a few celebrities, a couple of politicians, some loyal customers of the other Goats and a few curious neighbors.
Sam Sianis, the patriarch of the family that owns and operates the taverns, was there. Sitting and smiling, he might have been recalling how he came here from his native Greece in 1955 to work for his uncle Billy, helped open in 1964 what is now the oldest BG, that subterranean tavern on Hubbard Street.
He was with his wife Irene and she was smiling too as they watched some of their six grown children — in addition to Bill, sons Tom, Paul and Ted, and twin daughters Patty and Jennifer — and 11 grandkids examine the handsome new place.
Bill Sianis had a goat on a leash and they wandered around, stopping here and there for people who wanted to touch the animal. Bill said he and the family had purchased the entire two-story building where the tavern sits, with apartments upstairs. “We are here for keeps and maybe the chance for another World Series,” he said.
Earlier this week he was back, with his wife, Boriana Tchernookova, a visiting clinical assistant professor in the biology department at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Sitting with them was their son, the youngest of the pack of Sianis grandchildren, nearly 4-year-old Ephraim.
“And he is already saying, ‘cheezborger, cheezborger,” Tchernookova said. “Maybe it’s genetic.”
Ana Luna was working nearby. She has worked for the Sianis family for 15 years, at the other Billy Goat locations and most recently in the Lake Street outpost that recently closed. She is excited and not only because this spot is closer to her home.
“Yes, I can walk to work and I am still getting used to it, but I know it’s going to be good here,” she said. “Of course we expect it to be crowded when the Cubs are playing and there are a lot of other events at the park during the year. But we can’t wait to start serving breakfast and meet all our new neighbors.”
One of those neighbors is Joe Shanahan, the owner of the Metro/Smart Bar/Gman Tavern complex to the north. He has been in the neighborhood for more than 40 years. He was at the opening party and told me, “We welcome the Billy Goat to the block and wish them only the best success. The Sianis family has made a great impression on me and all the people I work with. It is not everyday you meet an icon like Sam Sianis on his ‘opening day’ and get to meet a goat too.”
