{"id":221805,"date":"2026-06-18T00:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/221805\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T00:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:17:11","slug":"world-cup-crowds-turn-philadelphia-bar-the-black-taxi-into-global-hot-spot-its-been-insane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/221805\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup crowds turn Philadelphia bar The Black Taxi into global hot spot: “It’s been insane”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pints were flowing at The Black Taxi in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood Wednesday afternoon as eyes were glued to the 2026 Men’s World Cup. But even for a bar that’s long had soccer in its DNA, the World Cup has been a different animal.<\/p>\n

“Oh, it’s been insane. Way more than I expected,” owner of The Black Taxi Frank Graff said.<\/p>\n

About half a mile from the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill, The Black Taxi has greatly benefited from the tournament’s arrival.<\/p>\n

“It’s more than I could ever imagine. It’s really a special experience,” Graff said.<\/p>\n

Since the group stage began, bartender Liam McCusker noticed a routine had taken on a life of its own. Fans from around the world stop in for a pint before heading to the FIFA Fan Festival just in time for the start of a match.<\/p>\n

“Then it’ll just be packed because they all come back at the same time after,” McCusker said.<\/p>\n

From Ecuador to France, McCusker and Graff said seeing the influx of international fans flowing through the bar is a treat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Scots were in. Mexico day one. USA, of course, on Friday, last Friday. That was pretty nuts,” Graff said.<\/p>\n

“Very beautiful city,” Brazil native Alan said.<\/p>\n

Alan and his friends, who traveled from Brazil for the World Cup, plan to attend Brazil’s match in South Philly Friday. Alan said he’ll be sporting a Brazil kit with a foam American football helmet, a nod to the two countries’ most popular sports.<\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

CBS News Philadelphia<\/p>\n

“The most popular sport in USA is American football. The most popular sport in Brazil is soccer. I make a hybrid,” he said.<\/p>\n

Tom and his friends, who traveled from England, stopped by The Black Taxi to watch their team’s 4-2 victory over Croatia and taste a cheesesteak for the first time.<\/p>\n

“We had the cheesesteak this morning,” Tom said. “It was probably the best thing I’ve ever had to be fair.”<\/p>\n

Cheesesteaks and wings have been popular orders since the World Cup kicked off, but McCusker says meeting all these new people has been the coolest part.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see another World Cup right at my doorstep, right in my backyard. So to say the least, once in a lifetime,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pints were flowing at The Black Taxi in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood Wednesday afternoon as eyes were glued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[37638,69,71,70,2236],"class_list":["post-221805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-fairmount","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}