Billy Goat tavern old goat Jeff Magill finally calls it quits

Baxter Lomax
    The Billy Goat tavern is the most over-rated bar and had it been located on Irving Park Road in Itasca instead off the magnificent mile nobody would ever of heard of the place. The Billy Goat tavern was one of thousands of bad Greek-owned diners in the Chicago area that are now part of history that as many of these places served bad coffee and pink slime burgers through the years before the public got tired and wanted something better than Greek family restaurant food n the cheap. If the Itasca Inn had been in downtown Chicago my name and the bar would be a household name and with this in mind I report the retiring of bartender Jeff Magill from the Billy Goat tavern that was all over both print and internet news. This old goat has been bartending at the Billy Goat since 1981 and apparently the guy could never moe up in life and open up a bar of his own.  This guy served many a  bad burgers and three cheap corporate beers on tap for a long long long time and somehow he gets celebrated for this fact? really. His mug was an institution at this crummy place on the corner of Hubbard and Michigan Avenue and even Mr. Magoo knew that the Billy Goat was losing its luster and decided the decline in tips was a sign of things to come. the Billy Goat has tried to venture into other areas and failed miserably at all times and without John Belushi's bit on Saturday Night Live the place would of been even more obscure and not a declared palace and as patronized as much.. Shit I almost forgot that Saturday night Live bit about this bar. There are many old folks geezer bars in Milwaukee much like this place but because it is in an elite shopping area (the last of the dive bars) and was celebrated through SNL the media somehow thinks this place and a event such as an old owl like Jeff Magill retiring should warrant a full page in newspapers. Really. The poignant love of this place is solely based on a bad seventies TV bit.The Billy goat is located in a historical spot as Cougar Face informed e this is where they dumped the liquor to prevent it from ending up in Indian hands and that pissed off the Potawatomi into deciding to conduct the Fort Dearborn massacre. The Billy Goat tavern serves a purpose to elites traveling on business dime to visit a place unique in urban centers this day and the Billy Goat is an establishment that is more celebrity than a place worthy to gulp beer and food. I have eaten and drank here a few times and was amazed at the atrociousness of the pink slime burgers and skunky beer that tasted like the bad German made far away  shipped beer that fooled many into thinking this was how beer was suppose to taste for decades. the Billy Goat tavern days are behind it and unless a major investor buys it and tries to revamp some of the charm I wonder if the Billy Goat business may be retiring sometime soon with this bartender. The Billy Goat blows and is nothing special and not more important than Tree Guys pizza and the Itasca Inn.