In the annals of sports fandom, there was once a time when the surest way to surround oneself with fellow diehards was to buy a ticket. Securing a seat in your favorite team’s ballpark or arena was basically synonymous with bumping painted bare chests with strangers.
Nowadays, though, tickets to high-echelon events are too costly for that kind of tomfoolery. Going to a game often means sitting between a disinterested exec entertaining a client and a guy watching the action unfold on his phone. There’s no guarantee they’re even rooting for the home team, as the Sixers discovered this month.
“I’m not going to have him sit here,” one Philadelphian told the New York Post as he hustled his young son out of Xfinity Mobile Arena, where a security guard estimated 90 percent of the seats were occupied by Knicks fans.
So, where do the biggest boosters go? Fortunately for those who care as much about gametime menus as what’s happening on the field: bars and restaurants. That rule is bound to apply during the upcoming FIFA World Cup, with matches scheduled in 16 cities across three countries, and most tickets selling for more than most American families spend on two months of groceries.
If you happen to live in one of the South’s biggest cities, there’s probably a homer venue near you. For example, here’s where to cheer on half a dozen of the tournament’s biggest underdogs—The Food Section’s official favorite kind of team—in greater Atlanta.
NEW ZEALAND
Heaps, 2752 E. Ponce de Leon, Decatur
While the Kiwis’ chances of advancing are slim, Heaps owner Jake Harvey still reckons that the World Cup could be a win for meat pies, the puff pastry-encased specialty of his one-year-old restaurant. Harvey, a New Zealander, eight years ago started selling the iconic dish at pop-ups and is sufficiently confident in his meat pie prowess that he’s offering World Cup-themed fillings this summer (as well as screening big games on an outdoor wall.) If England and Mexico meet in the tournament, for instance, one pie might hold steak and Stilton, while the other could incorporate chorizo and cotija.
Asked which country’s cuisine would be hardest to meat pie, Harvey paused for a moment before settling on Turkey.
“What I’m looking for is gravy,” he said. “You can get creative, but Turkey is a gravy-less country.”
IRAQ
Nafas, 5953 Buford Highway NE, Suite 108, Doraville
“Iraqi family,” food influencer Saly Albayati announced in a reel posted to Instagram in April, “first we made it to the World Cup and now we made it to Atlanta.”
Having just opened in March, Nafas hasn’t yet devised a World Cup plan; a dining-room piano is the primary source of entertainment at the elegant second-floor restaurant, flanked by smoked glass windows. For patrons, though, decision-making is simpler: Nafas prides itself on maqluba, the sculpted upside-down rice dish that’s beloved across the Middle East, and broad lamb-beef kebabs, which—in keeping with national tradition—taste more of smoke than seasoning.
UZBEKISTAN
Laghman Express, 3070 Windward Plaza X1, Alpharetta
A branch of the Brooklyn institution which made back-to-back appearances on Pete Wells’ 100 Best Restaurants list for the New York Times, Laghman Express is one of the few restaurants on this list that isn’t furnished with a television. Fortuitously, though, the vigorous hand-pulled noodles which anchor its menu are ideal takeout material.
(Also, it’s worth noting that Laghman Express is owned by a Kyrgyzstani immigrant, although company founder Oibek Dzhuraev told Brooklyn Magazine, “In Kyrgyzstan, we are the neighbor of Kazakhstan, the neighbor of Uzbekistan, the neighbor of Tajikistan, the neighbor of Xinjiang, China. We all share our culture and our food.” He didn’t say anything about soccer allegiances.)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Bosnian Market, 488 Gwinnett Dr., Lawrenceville
Only (by Balkan standards) 40 percent of adults in Bosnia and Herzegovina smoke, but when I visited Bosnia Market on a recent Thursday afternoon, I was the lone diner without a cigarette. In other words, presumably nostalgic expats have helped this charismatic corner restaurant out-Bosnia and Herzegovina even their home country. A server assured me that the same mood will prevail during the nation’s World Cup matches: “It will be crazy,” she said.
Whatever you order at Bosnia Market—which also goes by the name of Euro Gourmet Café—it ought to involve lepinje from Lawrenceville’s Grand Prix Bakery. The exceptional bread is lofty and soft, with crannies primed to absorb sausage drippings. It’s also sold at the attached grocery.
JORDAN
Petra Café, 10684 Alpharetta Hwy #500, Roswell
Hamza Amayrah of Petra Café—which several months ago took over the space previously occupied by Java Café (the name still used by online maps, Amayrah warns prospective customers)—doubts his native country will notch a World Cup win. But he’s equally certain that won’t stop fans from gathering at Petra to watch.
“We had events for the Asian Cup, and it was really busy,” he said.
Many of those fans will confine their orders to hookah, but Petra serves a full food menu, including hummus ennobled by remarkably good olive oil. According to Amayrah, Jordanians take olive oil very seriously—and very frequently. “In my family, we are 11, and we used 30 gallons a year,” he said.
HAITI
Zeke’s Kitchen & Bar, 4454 S. Cobb Dr., Ste, 101, Smyrna
Since opening in 2021, the irresistibly upbeat Zeke’s Kitchen & Bar—which last October added a Westside location to its portfolio—has made its name on chef-owner Ezechiel Jean-Louis’ liberal interpretations of his mother’s Haitian cooking. Rather than fried pork piled with pikliz, Zeke’s serves epis-marinated pulled pork tacos with herbal aioli.
But Jean-Louis recently told 285 South that his menu will take a traditional turn for the World Cup. Anticipating that Haitian Americans will travel to Atlanta to see their team play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, he aims to serve the dishes they crave.
“[I want to] pack this place out with everybody,” he said of a planned June 24 watch party. “Not just Haitians—everybody out. And I want everybody to…feel safe and see people like them and eat food that they’re familiar with.”
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