At a Belgian bar in East English Village on Monday night, July 6, a man from Thailand eating French fries watched a German-born midfielder score a goal for the home team in the World Cup and led a boisterous chant of “U.S.A! U.S.A!”
Sometimes, this can be a great country.
It did not turn out to be a great game for the Americans, who were spanked 4-1 by the Red Devils of Belgium in Seattle and made an inglorious exit from the planet’s most exuberant sporting event.
It was a grand evening, however, for the Cadieux Cafe, the preeminent gathering spot for Belgians in Detroit since 1933.
The most logical place to catch the game this side of Antwerp handled its largest crowd of the tournament with aplomb. The cluster of Belgium fans left happy. The disappointed USA fans at least left full.
“We ordered 200 pounds of mussels today,” said owner John Rutherford, and most of them, like the outmanned Americans, were reduced to empty shells by the end of the match.
Any of three dozen Belgian beers were quaffed, backs were slapped, merriment abounded, tradition and Brussels sprouts were served.
Families and football
Three generations of Pattyns were seated in the former speakeasy when the game commenced: Ryan, 48, who has lived in Bangkok for 20 years; son Remy, 13, who lives with his mom in Vancouver, Canada; and patriarch Dennis, 73, who had come all the way from Ferndale.
It was Ryan Pattyn who sparked the “U.S.A.” chant. Having spent two decades in the company of expatriate Brits and Australians, he calls soccer “football,” but still feels American enough that he pumped his upraised fists when Malik Tillman’s penalty kick tied the game at 1-1.
Unless you were waving the black, yellow and red Belgian flag, or wearing it on your baseball cap or T-shirt, that was it for highlights.
By midway through the second half, Pattyn was out back at a picnic table in the biergarten brilliantly known as Mussel Beach, watching his father and son play gin rummy. Belgium’s lead was 3-1, “and that’s hard to come back from,” he said.
Simply being there, however, was more important than being on the winning side, or choosing a side in the first place.
Invited by friends, Jim and Jan Labroski are so typically unconcerned with soccer that they assigned themselves homework.
“We were watching some YouTube videos before we came,” said Jan, 70, of St. Clair Shores. Among the things they learned: “The turf always has to be green, but it doesn’t have to be grass.”
Behind them, another family from St. Clair Shores had knowledge and accessories.
Bernie Allemon, 58, is 100% Belgian. He wore a Detroit Tigers cap and a shirt with the emblem of the Belgian-American Association, which meets on the third Tuesday of every month at a Greek cultural center.
His wife Dee Dee, 64, was also properly festooned, and their son Ben, 34, had both a hand-sized Belgian flag and a Belgian scarf that turned out to be ideal for twirling when his team scored.
“We have to keep our heritage going,” Bernie said.
Dee Dee, who’s Czech, realized early that she couldn’t lose.
A Belgium victory would delight the people she loves. If America comes out on top, she said, what the heck, she lives here.
“It’s a win-win for us,” she said. Then she factored in the Cadieux Cafe, the mother ship for Belgians, and corrected herself:
“It’s a win-win-win.”
Peter Paul and pigeons
The Cadieux is so Belgian that its corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich is called the Peter Paul Reuben, and if that makes people Google the Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens, good. They can pair it with the Belgian Onion Soup.
The bar sits in what used to be a Belgian neighborhood half a mile from Grosse Pointe − where Belgian builders constructed many of the older houses.
Back when pigeon and bicycle races were in fashion, the Cadieux was the starting line. It still offers feather bowling, a relative of bocce and curling played on concave dirt lanes using thick wooden discs that look like wheels of cheese.
The next-closest lanes are in Belgium, so it’s not an easily translatable skill, but it’s fun.
No one played Monday night. As the soccer game went on, several dozen Belgium fans migrated to the seats at one end of the lanes, watching on a smaller televison than in the other room but making larger amounts of noise.
Outside at the Garage Bar − picture a Belgian tiki hut − Rutherford said diplomatically that “I root for everyone.”
Now he can openly pull for Belgium, which means pulling for more games and more Belgian beers. Next up is Spain, on Friday in Inglewood, California.
Ben Allemon, the scarf-waver, said he’ll be back.
“It’s the only game in town,” he said.
At least, it’s the only game with mounds of mussels.
Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: At Detroit’s historic Belgian bar, U.S. World Cup loss drew some cheers
Reporting by Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
