Paint the town orange? Parkville bar transforms into Netherlands World Cup ‘oasis’
Sitting in a Northland bar decked out in Dutch orange watching a FIFA World Cup match on the big screen, Frank Everink was more than 4,500 miles from home.
But he didn’t feel as if he was inside the American Legion-run Alley Bar in downtown Parkville. It felt as if he was back in the Netherlands.
From the orange tarps covering the outside of the bar to the orange flags hanging across the ceiling and even the patrons donning orange outfits, everything was the perfect replication of how they celebrate big matches back home.
“It’s amazing, really. Just being in another country and having a bar like this is crazy,” he told The Star Wednesday afternoon.
Everink traveled from the Netherlands to Canada earlier this summer on a trip across the world with his van when he realized he was within driving distance of Kansas City, where the Netherlands national team is set to play Tunisia at 6 p.m. Thursday.
So, he secured a ticket to the match at Arrowhead and headed to the metro, hoping to stay near the team’s base camp in Riverside.
What he didn’t expect to find, however, was a slice of Dutch tradition so far from home.
But Chris Wallingford, who runs the Alley Bar through the American Legion Post 318, was one step ahead.
This spring, Wallingford was on a mission to transform the small bar at 11 Main St. into a “soccer bar,” deciding to go all in on the Netherlands as visions of the bar plastered in orange flashed through his mind.
Orange walls. Orange flags. Orange table cloths. Orange signs. Orange umbrellas. Everything had to be orange.
He even secured 20 kegs of a Dutch blonde ale through his sponsorship with Duvel and Boulevard, along with 400 krokets, a beloved Dutch snack made of meat and bread.
“We just said, ‘Let’s go crazy. Let’s go all Dutch,’” Wallingford said.
And so far, it’s paid off — literally.
At first, Wallingford expected to have around 150 people visit the bar for matches and maybe earn a little extra money.
But last Saturday, he had over 400 customers, and expects even more for Thursday’s match.
Since last week, Wallingford had sold 13 of the 20 kegs of Dutch beer as of Wednesday afternoon, and had to stop selling it in order to save the remaining seven for Thursday’s match.
Plus, he’s had visitors from across the Midwest and, like Everink, the world.
He’s met groups of people who flew from the Netherlands to Kansas City and traveled directly from the airport to his bar to check it out. Another woman he met, who moved from the Netherlands to the U.S. 25 years ago, told him, “This is what it feels like to watch a game at home.”
“The fact that we can, a little bit, recreate that is awesome,” he said. “They wouldn’t have come to Parkville or to the Alley Bar if we hadn’t been orange.”
But the best part of it all? The future impact it will have on veterans, he said.
All earnings at the Alley Bar are donated back to veterans and veteran-based charities. A good Monday usually brings in around $100, he said. This Monday brought in over $1,000. In a normal month, they raise around $18,000. Last week alone, Wallingford tallied $21,000.
“The remarkable thing is because of the World Cup, and because we put in a little bit of effort, we’re going to raise (an extra $40-50,000) for veteran charities,” he said. “We’re excited about the vibe and the turnout, but we’re really excited about the opportunity to help charities help (veterans).”
While Everink has discovered many people in the U.S. aren’t as familiar with soccer as they are back in the Netherlands, they’re just as kind, he said.
Strangers he has met at the bar have turned into friends, many of them offering up their homes as a place to shower, wash his clothes and get a home cooked meal.
“The people here are, I could say, a bit Dutch. They’re very friendly, very open,” he said. “I feel like I landed in a little oasis.”
