How A Chicago Tavern Inspired A Legendary SNL Sketch

One of the most famous "Saturday Night Live" sketches is the Olympia Café, a recurring bit about a diner run, as so many are, by Greek immigrants. Although customers try to order any number of things, the diner offers only one dish: A cheeseburger (or "cheezborger," as delivered in a heavy accent), served not with fries but with chips (or "cheeps") and Pepsi. (This was neither the first nor last "SNL" sketch to deal with meat.)

Exaggerated though it may be, the Olympia Café sketch is clearly based on somebody's personal experience. So, it makes sense that there's a restaurant in Chicago, the Billy Goat Tavern, which claims its boisterous, Greek cooks and waiters inspired future "SNL" writer and Billy Goat Tavern regular Don Novello to create the Olympia Café sketch. (In this way, the "SNL" sketch is very similar to "The Bear" which is also based on a real Chicago restaurant.) In their thick accents, owner Billy Sianis and fellow cook Bill Charuchas would exhort the diners using many of the sketch's catchphrases, including "Double cheezborger! No fries, chips!"

There is, however, a slight wrinkle in the story. Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi (brother of the late John) insist that the Olympia Café was based on a burger joint — called the Olympia Restaurant — that was ran by Belushi's father. Bill Murray, on the other hand, believes that the Billy Goat Tavern was the inspiration. While we may never know for sure which establishment inspired the sketch, the Olympia is no longer around while the Billy Goat Tavern is, allowing the latter to reap the rewards of the sketch's fame.

To make matters even more confusing, the success of the sketch inspired a new restaurant chain to open, this one called Cheeburger Cheeburger. It was founded in Sanibel, Florida in 1986, and although the original location suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Ian in 2022, it's still open today. (This location, along with a restaurant in Richmond International Airport in Richmond, Virginia, are the only two that remain open.) Unlike the Olympia Café, though, Cheeburger Cheeburger does sell fries, not chips. However, we wouldn't put too much stock in the chain's food; its offerings failed to make our list of the best chain restaurant burgers. 

Back when Cheeburger Cheeburger was expanding during the early 2000s, it had a run in with none other than the Billy Goat Tavern, which sued the chain when it announced plans to open a restaurant in Glenview, Illinois. Billy Goat Tavern took issue with a burger joint taking inspiration from the very same "SNL" sketch it inspired. The two parties eventually settled: The Glenview establishment was known as just Cheeburger, and no other Cheeburger Cheeburger locations were opened within 125 miles of downtown Chicago.