Sam Sianis, who spent more than five decades behind the bar of the Billy Goat Tavern and transformed a modest Lower Michigan Avenue dive into one of Chicago’s most storied gathering places, died Friday. He was 91. The restaurant said he died peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by family.
Mr. Sianis inherited the Billy Goat from his uncle, William “Billy Goat” Sianis, who opened the tavern in 1934. When his uncle died in 1970, Sam took over and became the face of the place, a man who understood that a great tavern is less about what you serve than who you welcome.
The Billy Goat sat in the shadow of Chicago’s old newspaper offices, and it became an unofficial clubhouse for the city’s reporters, editors, printers, and columnists. After deadline, they came downstairs to the tavern’s narrow bar, ordered cheezborgers, and argued about the day’s news. WBEZ described it as a gathering spot for “the reporters, editors, printers and press-runners that made the business hum.”
Mike Royko, the legendary Chicago Tribune columnist, was a regular. According to the Billy Goat Tavern’s Wall of Fame, Royko called Sam Sianis the “Greatest Innkeeper in Chicago.” Royko often came there after work, held court at the bar, and wrote about the place.
The Billy Goat became famous for its hamburgers and for the curse—the story that William Sianis placed on the Cubs in 1945 after being ejected from Wrigley Field with his pet goat. But its real legacy was as a place where Chicago’s newspaper culture could gather, argue, and become itself.
Mr. Sianis was born in Greece and came to Chicago as a young man. He is survived by family members.
Funeral arrangements were pending.