Latest news with #BillyGoatTavern
Axios
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Monica celebrates 40 years in journalism
Forty years ago this month, I started my first journalism job as a copy clerk at the Sun-Times. Full disclosure: My mom was dating Roger Ebert at the time, and I got the gig entirely through clout. Why it matters: The milestone gives me a chance to reflect on changes in the biz and thank my lucky stars I'm still in it. The tech: My job was to take written phone messages, cart up the afternoon editions and distribute mail to the features department — duties and a department that no longer exists. Trump effect: In 2004, the Sun-Times building at 401 N. Wabash was demolished to make way for Trump Tower, where many staffers believed the newsroom would return until the deal was nixed. Cross street rivals: Despite the competition between the Sun-Times and Tribune (where I would report from 1996-2013), reporters would regularly commiserate over drinks in neutral territory downstairs at the Billy Goat Tavern. Today, both papers have decamped for cheaper, less prominent office space. The latest: One recent Tribune relocation spot — Freedom Center on West Grand — is now slated to become a giant haunted house. Enough said. The one constant: My favorite lunch as a teenage (sort of) vegetarian in 1985 became a Billy Goat cheeseburger, minus the patty and loaded with pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard. Forty years later, I assembled the same burger in the still charmingly grimy tavern and zinged immediately back to the summer of 1985.
CBS News
15-06-2025
- CBS News
Billy Goat Tavern at Navy Pier brings food for Chicago police officers mourning Officer Krystal Rivera
The Billy Goat Tavern and Grill at Navy Pier helped bring smiles to dozens of Chicago police officers on Sunday. Chefs at the legendary Chicago restaurant packed up cases of soda and cooked up 160 cheeseburgers. It was all for officers at the Grand Crossing (3rd) and Gresham (6th) district police stations — at 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave. and 7808 S. Halsted St., respectively — where fallen officer Krystal Rivera served her community. The effort was organized by retired Chicago police Officer Walter Metcalf. Metcalf worked with Grand Crossing District Cmdr. Melvin Branch to get the donated food delivered. Rivera accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer during a chase in the Chatham neighborhood on the night of Thursday, June 5. ivera was part of a CPD tactical team on patrol just before 10 p.m. near 82nd and Drexel, when they tried to conduct an investigatory stop, and as officers approached, the suspect ran into a nearby apartment building. Police chased the suspect inside, and sources said Rivera and her partner followed the suspect to an apartment on the second floor. Snelling has said, when officers got to that apartment, they were confronted by a second person armed with a rifle. Rivera, 36, was shot in the back, and was rushed to University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
