In KC, England’s World Cup stars celebrated win with extra time in ice cream shop
Maybe Bette Rae’s should change the name of the flavor to “Jude Bellingham Vanilla Bean,” or to “Three Lion Butter Cake,” or to “Ooey Gooey British Butter.”
Of course, if the ice cream shop is looking for new name (and no one says they are) a name as simple and straight forward as an inside-of-the-foot pass, might be the most obvious: “England World Cup Team’s Top Choice.”
On Sunday, one day after England’s World Cup team defeated Norway 2-1 in Miami for a quarterfinal victory in 91-degree heat that felt much hotter, England’s 23-year-old futbol star Bellingham — who scored both of England’s goals on Saturday — sauntered into Bette Rae’s in Prairie Village, together with his teammates, for some post-victory ice cream.
Ooey Gooey and lemonade
Exactly what Bellingham, himself, ordered isn’t quite clear. But two-month employee Imrie Goller of Prairie Village was there.
“I know they liked our butter cake ice cream. A couple of those got ordered,” she said of the flavor, officially called Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, packed in the bin up front below S’mores and alongside Salted Caramel and USA250—Chantilly Cake.
Sorry Coca-Cola, the official 2026 FIFA World Cup soft drink sponsor, the team’s drink of choice:
“Boylan Sparkling Lemonade,” Goller said.
Fans and Instagram
Bellingham and the team’s late afternoon presence hardly went unnoticed.
An Instagram post of a gaggle of fans meeting players and taking selfies outside the shop, 5220 West 95th St., has received more than 32,000 views so far. The team, which has been staying just blocks away at the Inn at Meadowbrook, is still in town, and not scheduled to fly out of Kansas City International Airport until Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. Plenty of time for more ice cream in a town that has embraced the team.
On Somerset Drive near the hotel, yards in every direction are planted with signs with the three royal lions on one side with a message of welcome and “Good Luck England” on the other. Argentina’s World Cup team, led by superstar Lionel Messi, has also made Kansas City its base camp, staying since May 11 at the Origin Hotel near Berkley Riverfront Park. Argentina was scheduled to fly out of KCI at 6 p.m. Monday.
Two KC-based teams to face off in semifinals
The two Kansas City area-based teams are set to face off in Atlanta at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinal to determine which will play for the World Cup championship at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 19, at the New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife). One of the Kansas City-based teams will play for the championship against the winner of Tuesday’s 2 p.m. semifinal match between France and Spain.
A curious aspect of the Bette Rae video, however: None of the players leave the shop are carrying ice cream. That’s not because they didn’t want it. There was power glitch.
“I had two groups of them come in yesterday,” Goller said. “The first group I did not know until like a group of teenagers came in and got pictures of them. The second group... they were all wearing their out-and-about uniforms.”
She meant their sky blue team T-shirts, some with the country’s three royal lions across the front. Bellingham’s had the hard-to-miss word “England” across the back.
‘We won’t be able to sell you anything’
Goller said they showed up at mid to late afternoon at a particularly inopportune time.
“All our power went out,” albeit briefly, she said. “So we had to, like, shut down. The door was locked. We had opened the door to tell them, ‘Hey, our power’s out. We won’t be able to sell you anything.‘ All our ice cream was in the deep freezer to stay cold.”
The team was unfazed.
‘They said, ‘That’s fine. Can we just come in and sit?’ Which, ‘Yeah, sure. We just can’t ring you up.’ They had a group of people outside. So they had a chance to take shelter from the hordes while we were closed.”
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The power was only off briefly. The players took photos with their fans.
Eight flavors for eight group stage teams
Matt Shatto, the owner of Bette Rae’s 14 locations, 10 of which are in the Kansas City area, said Sunday was not the first time the players came in.
“Funny,” he said, “What we know is that they came in about a week ago. We heard about it in retrospect. We didn’t really know who they were until after they had left.”
Team captain Harry Kane reportedly was among them.
“This was the second time they have been in,” Shatto said.
As for a name change, it’s not going to happen.
“I’ll tell you what We created a flavor for every team,” Shatto said of the eight World Cup flavors for each of the teams that played in Kansas City during the group stage. “And we did a London Fog for the England team.”
For Argentina, they created dulce de leche; for Algeria, baklava; for Curaçao, cashew cake batter; for Tunisia, sweetened pine nut; for Austria, sachertorte; and for the Netherlands, stroopwafel.
“Well stick to making Kansas City known for Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, in this case,” Shatto said. “And they can come and enjoy it as much as they want.”
Cracking good idea.
