Forget the World Cup, ‘Love Island USA’ is the television event packing this Oakland bar

It is unmistakably summer at 51 & Tel. Strung up on the ceiling are watermelon-patterned pool floats, beach balls and blue balloons. Turquoise streamers glitter on the pillars in the bar. Strangers stand side-by-side looking toward the screens above the bar and a line forms all the way to the back wall, making a sharp corner toward the patio door. It’s a Thursday night and everyone is here for the same reason. There’s no big World Cup game, no birthday party or special DJ, just a reality show that plays nearly every day of the week – “Love Island.”

Everyone in 51 & Tel was turned toward the TVs above the bar to watch the drama unfold. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

A Thursday night is typically slow for 51 & Tel (5018 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) which opened in September 2024.

“It’s tough, especially at 5 o’clock,” said co-owner Yonathan Yohannes.

The bar doesn’t sell food, so revenue mainly comes from drink sales. A normal Thursday will bring in as little as a couple hundred dollars a night. But during the “Love Island” season, Yohannes said revenues reach the thousands at each watch party. The nights were so busy that Yohannes hired extra bartenders, a bar back and security.

“Love Island” fans line up outside 51 & Tel to get the best seats for a Thursday night watch party. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

The watch parties themselves are a phenomenon in the sheer amount of people who show up, but in the grand scheme of the show, the popularity of the 51 & Tel watch parties is by no means anomalous. Within the first few days, the eighth season of “Love Island USA” had 3.7 million viewers (plus one because this reporter’s brother started watching this week) and was the most watched Peacock original series debut.

Last summer Yohannes had no idea what “Love Island” even was, but his brother insisted it would draw a crowd. He didn’t want to hire the extra staff or waste money on an event that wasn’t going to pan out. Their very first watch party was in the middle of the 2025 season and had a line outside of the door before the bar opened. It was clear it would be a hit.

“That kind of just got us a brand new audience and it kind of just was crazy,“ Yohannes said.

Previously on “Love Island”

For those who don’t watch “Love Island,” let Nosh catch you up on the 25 episodes of canoodling, conniving and controversy you missed. The fan favorites, who many at 51 & Tel were rooting for, are Trinity and Bryce, an unlikely pairing of a goofy male model and a quick-witted ex-hardware store employee.

“I think she’s hilarious,” Yohannes said about Trinity.

Here’s who viewers were mad at before last Thursday’s episode: Sincere, whose name is not an aptronym for his character, double timed his partner Melanie with another woman after he said he’d call it off; KC, who explored a little too much during the Casa Amor relationship test; and Kenzie, who kissed Caleb while coupled with Corbin, kissed Corbin while coupled with Caleb, and then kissed yet another man after coupling with Dylan. Her reasoning? “A kiss is like a handshake.”

Based on a UK reality dating show, “Love Island USA” is essentially “American Idol” meets “The Bachelor” meets “Big Brother.” A group of young men and women are documented on their journey to find love in “The Villa,” a house in Fiji, and presented with a series of challenges and temptations to test their connections. The goal is to be voted best couple by the viewers.

“Love Island” mostly draws young women to the bar. The regular crowd, which Yohannes describes as diverse and over the age of 28, leans younger on watch party nights.

New faces appear every week as posts on Instagram and TikTok gain popularity, but there is a steady crowd of fans frequently there. Braden Dewitt, a bartender who usually works the watch parties, was surprised by how involved the crowd gets and how many people keep coming back.

“I’m just seeing a lot of the familiar faces and it’s growing every time,” Dewitt said.

One of those familiar faces is Jamila Smith, a teacher at a local private school. She has been watching “Love Island” for the past two seasons, came to 51 & Tel last year and is now a regular at the watch parties.

“I like the vibes. I like that there’s a good amount of people, good reaction, good drinks,” Smith said. She said she’d definitely be coming back to watch the finale on Sunday, July 12.

“Love Island” elicits the whole range of human emotions. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

Nearby at Cholita Linda, cashier Ciena Brooks said she can always tell when it’s a “Love Island” watch party night because she watches as people line up across the street and come in to order food before or after the show.

“Having a ton of people come in on a slow day is very surprising,” said Brooks, who’s rooting for Trinity.

At last Thursday’s watch party, the islanders were having a screening of their own. It was the second half of movie night, an event where the lovers watch on a big screen all of the private moments their partners didn’t know about and we watched at home. The anticipation of the islanders finally getting to see one another gossiping and sneaking around created an excited energy when the door of the bar first opened at 5 p.m., an hour before the show aired. A half-hour later, every table was filled with groups of friends who came after work to watch the show.

The cocktail “Villa 51” is one of 51 & Tel’s watch party sips. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

Before the show began, fans gossiped about the islanders as if they were old high school friends while the previous episode ran on the TVs with the sound off and SZA played in the background. They ordered drinks named “Bombshell Margarita” and “Soul Ties is Crazy”, spins on 51 & Tel’s regular cocktail menu. The most popular drink, according to Dewitt, is “Casa Amor”, a spicy and tropical tequila cocktail.

The episode started with the sound of thunder and dramatic war-like music. Outside on the patio, attention shifted toward the TV showing a stormy Fiji, a visual foreshadowing of the islanders’s arguments to come. “Tomatoes,” (a reference to the island girls booing Corbin) people yelled, as the previous episode’s recap showed KC saying he had nothing in common with Aniya.

There was screaming and laughing when Corbin said Kenzie was going to, “bust the splits,” (a reference to Kenzie’s memed “clam slam”), a collective “aw” at Caleb when he said Kenzie hurt his feelings (and “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish played for dramatic effect), and yelling at Zac when he started to defend the other boys’ behavior (a “shut up,” was hurled toward the screen). Everyone held their breaths during the tense moments and a rare silence filled the air.

“Love Island” fans gathered on the back patio to watch the Peacock show. 51 & Tel put together a special cocktail menu for the watch parties. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

Inside the bar, a pink hue was cast from the TVs next to the orange fluorescent lights of the liquor shelf and the red glowing, “We met at 51 & Tel” neon sign. Applause and cheers broke out during Melanie’s big speech to Sincere, whose apology the crowd found disingenuous. Chants broke out and a rhythmic “f— Sincere!” spread through the crowd.

The energy at 51 & Tel was infectious. As someone who usually watches the show at home, I felt impassioned to join in with “are you kidding me?” and “why would you say that?” when the moment struck (and it struck often). Being among the crowd at 51 & Tel was how I imagine one feels watching their football team at a hometown bar with equal amounts of cultural significance as the Apollo 11 moon landing.

“Love Island” fans were packed in, leaving little room to move around. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

This week is the last in the season. Since last Thursday’s episode, seven islanders have been dumped from “The Villa” and there are more to come as the end approaches. Yohannes is expecting a large crowd for the finale this Sunday, and is figuring out how to fit more people in the bar. The show will start at 6 p.m., but viewers should arrive early if they want to snag a spot.

51 & Tel was open to showing World Cup matches on some of the TVs during “Love Island” watch party nights, but the crowd wanted to watch the reality series instead. No distractions. Yohannes plans to keep screening Love Island each summer, marking the bar’s June and July calendars off like a yearly holiday.

“It’s kind of like a Christmas for us,” Yohannes said.

In Villa terms, 51 & Tel is closed off with Love Island watch parties.

“I’m rocking with ‘Love Island’ to the end.”

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