• Sam Sianis, owner of Billy Goat Tavern, died

    From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to alt.obituaries on Fri May 15 21:17:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries

    Location location location

    The Billy Goat Tavern had relocated from the west side, across from
    Chicago Stadium, to the Hubbard Street/Lower Michigan Ave location
    inside the REALTOR building in 1964. They could operate a grill in
    addition to the bar, hence the famous cheeseburgers, and had a steady
    stream of customers. Why? They were between Tribune Tower (both Trib and Chicago Today) and the Sun-Times Building (including the Daily News).
    Newspaper writers were hard drinkers. Royko may have written columns
    there while not entirely sober and considered Sam Sianis a good friend.

    The curse of the billy goat legend was Sam's father when he wasn't
    admitted, with goat, to one of the Cubs games in the 1945 World's
    Series. Took a few years to break that curse.

    Sam was a good businessman, expanded to multiple locations, and played
    off fame from Royko and other columns, the weak Saturday Night Live
    skit, and other reasons. The newspaper men are gone, just tourists now.

    Before his recent gall bladder surgery, Sam was still sweeping up after closing. He never retired.

    https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/15/sam-sianis-billy-goat-chicago-dies/ --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2