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. ( .
) 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 " .
) 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. The Olympia Ca.
