Olympia Cafe

The Olympia Cafe was a fictional diner or greasy spoon featured in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch. The staff, led by the late John Belushi as Pete Dionasopolis, were Greeks. As various guest stars discovered, only three items on the long menu could actually be ordered successfully: the cheeseburger (memorably pronounced "Cheezborger" by Belushi), chips (pronounced "Cheep"), and Pepsi. Attempts to order Coke were invariably met with the retort, "No Coke! Pepsi!". Likewise, those who ordered french fries got the response, "No fries! Chips!".

According to Don Novello, who penned the first Olympia Cafe sketch, the diner was based on the Billy Goat Tavern on Lower North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which is still operating (and part of a small chain).^[1]

Olympia is a Greek town after which many restaurants were named. The late John Belushi's father owned a cafe called the "Olympia" in the 1960s. During the 1970s, there was a real-life Olympia Cafe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which was very similar to the diner in the sketch.^{[citation needed]}

Other cultural references

In the Family Guy episode "Don't Make Me Over" when Lois worries Meg might develop a "coke problem," Peter responds: "No Coke; Pepsi!"

See also

• Recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches
• Cheeburger Cheeburger

Notes

1. ^ Sullivan, Paul. "Cheezborger, Cheezborger, Cheezborger! The Billy Goat Tavern's Walls Tell a Thousand Stories." The Chicago Tribune 9 March 1984: NS1+