Getting A Shot: International Restaurateurs Fear Being Overlooked by World Cup Fans

First story in a three-part series

Soccer players love suqaar.

Pronounced sooh-car, the chicken version of this traditional Somali dish is the No. 1 best seller at Yasmeen Cafe, located at 1447 Independence Ave. 

Chef/owner Abdul Hatimi sautés chicken thighs rubbed with a rich mixture freshly ground from whole spices, including cumin, coriander, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and turmeric. He serves it over fluffy, long-grain basmati rice. 

“We know Algeria and Tunisia are playing here,” Hatimi said of the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches scheduled to be played June 16 through July 11 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. “These are African nations, and this is the kind of food they eat. Most of (the players) like eating halal food, so if they Google up ‘halal’, we always appear on top.” 

Hatimi fled his country for Kenya, then settled in Kansas City more than two decades ago to raise a family. The lifestyle here suits him better than Chicago and Atlanta, two larger cities he tried before returning to Kansas City. 

A self-taught cook, he opened his restaurant eight years ago.

He is eager to welcome international tourists of every stripe and kit to his newly renovated restaurant, showcasing a bank of new windows that let more light in, gleaming white Subway tile, and handsome dark wood accents. 

Independence Avenue — a stretch bisecting the Historic Northeast between The Paseo and Ewing Avenue — was once synonymous with blight and prostitution.

Hatimi wondered how out-of-towners would find their way to the much-improved corridor if many Kansas Citians themselves are unaware of its renaissance. 

“The neighborhood used to be rough back in the day,” Hatimi said. “The thing that needs to be clear: They’ve cleaned it up a lot, and a good word from the city, and promotion from the city, would help a lot.”

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Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce (NEKC) President Bobbi Baker waited for direction from local organizers on how to prepare for the 650,000 international soccer fans projected to land in Kansas City for the international soccer tournament.

“It’s so close, and yet it feels like there’s just not a plan,” Baker said in mid-February. “We have such a diverse concentration of immigrants and refugees who don’t know how to promote themselves, so we’re starting to highlight some of the hole-in-the-wall gems that you might just walk by.” 

Pounding the Pavement

Rol Diing counts himself a basketball fan because his home of South Sudan has produced some of the NBA’s top recent draft picks, but he can also discuss the rules and strategies of fútbol.

Diing escaped his war-torn country 26 years ago. He raised his three children in the Historic Northeast, a community that at the turn of the last century was home to Italian immigrants. New waves of migration from Vietnam, Mexico, Eastern Europe, Somalia, and other parts of Africa have created a melting pot.

Diing spends a portion of his workdays pounding the pavement as NEKC’s ambassador of business communications. He stops frequently to chat with business owners, the majority of whom own a restaurant, market, or food-related establishment.

Diing’s sales pitch is usually aimed at encouraging active chamber membership, but of late, his conversations have centered on ways to attract World Cup fans. Language barriers, an unfamiliarity with technology, and tight budgets can make it difficult to market beyond their own ethnic communities. 

But given the right resources and support, the neighborhood’s proximity to downtown makes it an obvious and authentic choice for tourists to explore.

“My pitch (to soccer fans) is this is a diverse community, which is really unique,” Diing said. “You’ve got the whole world out there. The traditional food is here.”

Children of the Historic Northeast grow up playing soccer, and the area recently celebrated the grand reopening of the 9th & Van Brunt athletic complex.

But that does not mean all business owners are brimming with youthful enthusiasm about the potential impacts of the World Cup, said Laura Birdsong, team resource manager for the Independence Avenue Community Improvement District.

Some are treating it more or less like any other month.

Nevertheless, Birdsong has been working to create the NEKC International Marketplace website and a downloadable phone app available on Google Play designed to help tourists navigate the neighborhood.

The app has three separate tours, including a 1.2-mile self-guided Taste of Independence route with 14 stops. 

As soccer fans make their way down the avenue, they’ll spot NEKC’s Urban Street Ambassadors wearing neon yellow t-shirts. The ambassadors routinely pick up trash and tend neighborhood garden beds, flowerpots, and hanging planters, but they will receive extra training to help point fans in the right direction.

For increased safety, the CID has placed several billboards along the avenue to illustrate a hand signal that identifies whether someone is in distress and asking for help.

“We’re so culturally diverse, there is a danger of people taking advantage of (immigrants and those with limited language skills), so we’ve been focused on the possibility of increased human trafficking and being sure we’re educating people and linked up with different resources,” Birdsong said.

Historic Northeast Pride

After Ramadan, Yasmeen Café shut down for a few weeks. By mid-April, the sign over the front door blinked “open” again, and lunch customers steadily trickled to the counter.

Hatimi shuttled between the counter and the kitchen, taking half a dozen orders for suqaar, which is made with chicken, beef, or tender young goat imported from New Zealand. 

Ifran Dillo, a cook from Senegal, makes rice and sambusas, triangle-shaped flaky turnovers stuffed with spiced ground beef and served as an appetizer or as a snack with a tiny cup of basbaas, a green hot sauce. Customers buy sambusas by the dozen, but Hatimi suggests ordering ahead for larger orders, such as soccer watch parties.

Also on the menu, beef stew with tender chunks of meat, potato, and carrot as a daily special, and casiir afokaado, a thick avocado milkshake. 

Hatimi studied to be a mechanical engineer, but cooking was always a passion. 

“There were a few Somali restaurants, but, you know, I wasn’t getting the real food that I wanted to eat, and I grew up in a foodie family,” Hatimi said. “My mom was a great cook, my dad a good cook. I learned a lot from them.  Most of my friends used to come eat at my place. They left telling me, ‘You need to open a restaurant.'”

Hatimi’s customers come from all over the metro area and the surrounding region.

“I try to get the best ingredients. I grind my own spices. I like to get the best quality ingredients I can get to make the food good, and it shows when my customers eat here,” said Hatimi, who is proud of high ratings for his food and strong word-of-mouth endorsement from his customers.  

A soccer fan in his youth, he supported the Wizards (renamed to Sporting Kansas City in 2010) before his six children ages 3-15 came along. Hatimi now calls himself a fan of that other football, rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs.

But, if given the chance, he’s ready to share his civic pride with soccer fans from around the world.

“I hope the city does something to push the traffic down this side. Mostly, the city usually pushes more toward the (Country Club) Plaza and that area. They should publicize us,” Hatimi said.

Jill Wendholt Silva is a James Beard Award winning writer and editor.