Chicago is home to plenty of fridges box
but you can call themselves an
underground wases for politicians celebs
and journalists over 85 years this
restaurant has evolved into one of
Chicago's most iconic culinary landmarks
and although it's hidden beneath the
city's bustling Michigan Avenue
it's become a required stopping point
for both hungry locals and visitors
because of a history here places like
these are hard to find good old mom and
pop shops you know with old culture food
and nothing's changed the food for years
and we've been the same there this is
billy goat tavern and it's been cooking
up its legendary cheeseburger since the
1960s
step inside billy goat tavern and you're
instantly overwhelmed with its history
the underground shop is covered in a
collage of news clips pictures of
celebrities and politicians and of
course notes of high praise for its
legendary cheeseburger cheezeborger
cheeseburger cheezeborger cheeseburger
cheezeborger doubles the best billy
goats burger is sandwiched in between
two halves of a kaiser roll bun in
between the bun is a juicy thin slab of
fresh all natural beef in two slices of
cheddar cheese
we got deliveries of burgers everyday so
we make them fresh every day
that's a second-generation owner Billy
Sana's and then we get fresh bread every
day kaiser roll we post this on the
grill so we just wait you know till they
start the sweat basically then you flip
them it's gonna be a nice sear and that
gives it the flavor we put cheese on
there and these are the doubles and you
can make triples as well but this is why
we do the spinner patty because you
could do different size burgers to make
for a more mouth-watering experience
Billy always recommends getting a double
cheeseburger customers can choose
whether to pile their burger with
pickles onions or other toppings but
don't expect any lettuce or tomato well
we say the goat ain't all those the
lettuce and tomatoes so we don't have
any of them red is really good the
pickles relish on there like that you
can throw your own toppings on there
Billy says the meat of a billy goat
burger is made from a clawed and Chuck
blend which comes from the shoulder area
of a cow Billy's father and his great
uncle didn't want any filler meat and
wanted to sell just pure beef and the
reason they kept their patties thin and
it was because we wanted to sear it but
also be juicy inside you do that when
you cook it fast also you could stack it
using a leaner ratio it cooks better and
I stayed the same size and then I shrink
too much so that was the ratio that they
liked and we've been using that ever
since but selling quality cheeseburgers
isn't the only reason this a vern became
a Chicago institution the original billy
goat tavern was born in 1934 across from
the Chicago Stadium now known as the
United Center when william purchased the
lincoln tavern for only 205 dollars
after a few months of being open a goat
fell off a truck and landed in front of
a door and brought it in as the
customers came in and they saw that the
reaction of the people they liked it and
so he decided to keep it and he used
that as a mascot
from then on William was known as
billy-goat he adopted the goat grew a
goatee changed the name of the bard to
billy goat tavern and made the goat part
of his business she started taking the
go to different events across the street
was into Chicago Stadium so I used to
take it to political events sporting
events he used to hide the gold and like
like a suitcase or something Billy Goats
stunts continued to get him local Fame
and in 1964 he moved his tavern to where
it is today underground right in the
middle of the city the tavern has since
expanded to eight locations across
Chicago so delicious and it's cheap
PepsiCo that's Sam sionis nephew of
Billy Goats Anna's who's still yelling
out their iconic catchphrase back in the
60s my dad and other cooks were mostly
Greek some of them came straight from
Greece they don't know a lot of English
so what they first learned was what was
on the menu so when a customer comes in
and you they place the order they yell
out the order so what do you have
cheeseburger next cheeseburger next
cheeseburger cheeseburger and it sounded
like you were getting yelled at but they
were just telling you what was on the
menu Billy Goats catchphrase became so
well loved by its customers that
Saturday Night Live Writer and Billy got
regular Donna Bello turned it into a
popular sketch on the show's third
season from then on Billy Goat gained
national fame and even received high
praise from food icon Julia Child
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it's an institution of Chicago it's a
great place to be this place feels like
home so it's not anything like different
but I appreciate that people recognize
the place and they come here to eat and
have a good time
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