Seattle’s only Aussie pub prepares for soccer fans to drink the bar dry

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Seattle: When Australia takes on the USA in the World Cup this weekend, the main event will be at Seattle Stadium. But the better seat might just be across town, at a bustling Aussie pub.

For 25 years, Bradley Howe has run Seattle’s only Australian and New Zealand-themed bar, the Kangaroo and Kiwi, in the city’s Ballard neighbourhood.

Located in a striking former public library, with massive television screens in every room and a wraparound patio, the pub is preparing for football fans to drink the joint dry.

“When it was announced that the US [team] was going to Seattle, I couldn’t believe it,” Howe says. “I’ve got kegs at my house, I’ve got liquor everywhere. We are stacked and loaded … Twenty-five years in the game and this might be my biggest, most exciting day.”

The 57-year-old was born in the small NSW town of Harden-Murrumburrah, and moved to the US in 1993 after meeting a woman while playing rugby league in Hawaii.

Despite more than three decades in America, Howe remains a picture of rural Australia. He wears a NSW Blues polo and shorts, and speaks in an entirely unchanged country Aussie accent.

He is delightfully ambivalent when it comes to the staying power of his pub, which has outlasted many similar venues in New York City.

It features plenty of Australian mainstays: bingo on Tuesday, trivia night on Wednesdays, and, when I’m there, INXS on the sound system. On the pool table, you’ll see graffitied phrases including this tribute to a former worker: “Best wishes mate, now piss off.”

“I just make it up as I go,” Howe says after pouring me a pint of local Manny’s pale ale. “I think I know what people want in a bar, and it’s variety, good service and a bit of acknowledgment.”

Seattle boasts a healthy Australian expat population, many working in tech. But this week, the city is turning into a veritable antipodean outpost, with upwards of 10,000 raucous Aussie soccer fans now arriving from Canada after watching the Socceroos beat Turkey on Saturday. “They’re coming in hot,” says Howe.

Among them are Peter Sparsis and Nathan McBride, best mates from Sydney who are living out their World Cup dream. They were polishing off a few pints, and a plate of chicken wings, at the Kangaroo and Kiwi on Wednesday night after arriving from Vancouver.

“Every Aussie you saw in the street gave a high-five and a hug – it was fantastic,” says McBride. “I had a meat pie for lunch, with gravy and baked beans. It wasn’t too bad. I wouldn’t say the meat pie was quite as good as home, but it was pretty good.”

Across the US, venues are preparing for a bumper weekend. Old Mates Pub in New York, Australia’s unofficial embassy in the Big Apple, will host a massive party – with former Socceroo Tim Cahill tipped to ring the bell and shout a round of drinks.

Following Australia’s 2-0 victory over Turkey in Vancouver, soccer fans nearly relieved the city of its alcohol supplies. Tyler Broers, owner of the Dublin Calling sports bar, told CBC television it was the only time in his career that he felt he was going to run out of booze.

In Seattle, Howe has come prepared. “I’ve had a couple of bars in the neighbourhood challenging me, ‘Who’s going to drink the most beer?’” he says. “I say bring it because I’m pretty confident we will take the prize.”

He’s in with a chance. When I leave the pub after sampling the highly serviceable “Michael Dickson’s Aussie-Style Chicken Parma”, I run into a fellow Australian wandering the streets of Ballard with two of his friends. Seemingly oblivious to the suitcase I’m carrying, they ask me whether I know any good bars in the area.