MILAN — In Boston, it’s said that Cheers is the bar where everybody knows your name. In Casablanca, everybody comes to Rick’s. But if you happened to be in Milan on Sunday night and absolutely, positively had to watch the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks go at it in Super Bowl 60, the place to be was Offside Sports Pub, located in the city’s Bullona neighborhood.
It was actually 12:40 Monday morning Central European Time when New England’s Andy Borregales kicked off to get this global party started. When it ended, the Seahawks emerging with a 29-13 victory, it was 4:23 a.m. in Milan. But not only was the Offside still mostly packed, New England’s sort-of comeback having fizzled out, it was packed several hours before it even began.
This is a smallish neighborhood joint, with a capacity of about 80, but the crowd appeared larger than that. Much larger, actually. Much, much larger. And that doesn’t even take into account the hearty folks standing out on the street, peering through the windows to watch the game, much like Americans did in the early days of television when they’d line up outside appliance stores to watch “I Love Lucy.”
“They allowed me to come inside and get a beer and then I had to go back outside,” said Christine Davis, a retired veterinarian from Rochester, N.H. She was in Milan with her husband, Mike Davis, also a veterinarian, to watch the Winter Olympics.
It was, however, rather chilly out. Maybe not New Hampshire chilly, but you can only chug beers for so long standing outside at night in 43-degree weather. Why not just go back to the hotel to watch the game? “Because of the atmosphere,” Mike said. “Standing outside like this, looking in the window, is kind of fun.”
The Patriots fell behind 3-0 early, but then the first quarter ended and a few locals trickled out the door. That’s when Christine and Mike were invited to trickle right in and given a pair of prized seats in the corner. As it happened, those seats were directly on the other side of the glass from where they had been standing outside.
Husband-and-wife veterinarians Mike and Christine Davis of Rochester, N.H., looked through the glass outside the Offside Sports Pub in Milan, Italy, to watch Super Bowl 60. (Steve Buckley / The Athletic)
The Offside is the brainchild of Maurizio Polenghi, who turns 45 on Wednesday. An affable native of Milan, Polenghi studied economics in school until switching to tourism, which led him to the bar business. And business is booming. He recently opened a second sports bar, Timeout, close to the spectacular Milano Centrale train station, though other commitments prevented it from being used for a Super Bowl crowd.
But, apparently, a lot of people Googled “Milan,” “Super Bowl” and “sports bar,” because Polenghi was getting inundated with calls for weeks leading up to Super Bowl 60.
Alas, not every American who made the pilgrimage to Offside Pub got inside. Then there were those who got inside but couldn’t stay inside. Ramon Ramos, a Patriots fan who grew up in Canaan, N.H., randomly showed up around two hours before kickoff with his girlfriend, Ashley Gardiner, only to be told the place was booked solid.
That they were in Milan at all made for a rather unfortunate case of bad timing. Months ago, Gardiner had planned a trip to the Olympics as a birthday surprise for Ramos — he turned 50 on Thursday — but she did so at a time when the Pats were nobody’s pick to make the playoffs, let alone play in the Super Bowl.
“I was born and raised a Patriots fan, and I was in my 20s when the Brady era was starting,” Ramos said. “And I used to work for NBC Sports, so I went to a lot of games.”
Ramos and Gardiner were allowed inside the bar with the understanding they’d have to leave at 11 p.m. Sure enough, the lucky folks who had scored reservations soon began lining up outside, and it was time for Ramos and Gardiner to leave.
So, who did get inside? Well, there were 10 security officials from the NHL in town for the Olympics, one of them proudly wearing a Seahawks shirt and making plenty of noise.
There was Chris Wheatley, 33, a Londoner who wasn’t much of a fan of American football until he attended the University of Essex. He then went home one weekend, and, as he put it, “My father was watching a game, and we started doing that father-son bonding thing, and here I am.”
He adopted the Patriots and has a team beanie to prove it. How’d he get inside for the game? “Thanks to this fine lady’s ability to speak Italian,” Wheatley said, gesturing toward his friend Camilla Curry, also from London. “We were in Milan for the Olympics, and she found this place.”
But the Italian tongue wasn’t really necessary: Polenghi speaks English fluently. Here’s something else that wasn’t necessary: Being wealthy.
“We had more than 500 requests to get in, and some people were offering money,” Polenghi said. “I didn’t want to do that.”
When Polenghi finally stopped answering his phone, he left a text message on his WhatsApp: “Hi, if you’re texting us for the Super Bowl night on Sun 8th February we’re sorry, but we are already fully booked.”
One person responded as follows: “Is there still some space if we leave a huge tip?”
No, there was not.
For Facebook users, a post by Taylor Nystrom of West Des Moines, Iowa, struck a note with football fans who’d be going to the Olympics. “It was a Winter Olympics page, and I put out something like, ‘Off topic, but has anyone made plans for the Super Bowl?’” Nystrom said. The ball got rolling, and by Sunday night, the group had three tables way in the back of the bar, just off the kitchen.
Among them were Patriots fans Michayla Streeter, 26, and Sarwat Samara, 25, both from Burlington, Vt. “We came to the Olympics because we’re figure skating fans,” Samara said. “And then we decided we wanted to watch the Super Bowl somewhere, and we found the Facebook group.”
The Seahawks led 9-0 at halftime. They expanded their lead to 12-0 in the third quarter, thanks to Jason Myers’ fourth field goal of the night. So many field goals, and so few great passes from Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold.
But Seattle was winning, and this was grand news for one of the locals on hand, Antonio Di Reda. Making the rounds in his metallic green Seahawks jersey, Di Reda explained his fandom thusly: “I’m an NFL fan, and I’ve been to Seattle. I’ve never been to New England.”
We can all agree, though, that from an aesthetic standpoint, this was not shaping up as a great Super Bowl.
It did shape up as a great night for the Offside, which opened in 2013. “Outside of the Championship League finals, this is the biggest crowd we’ve ever had,” Polenghi said.
There were a few empty seats as the fourth quarter began. It was, after all, the middle of the night. But the crowd remained as loud as it had been all night, with Seahawks fans in attendance making the most noise — all this happening as the Patriots were falling apart.
“I spent the first half standing outside,” said Brian Alf, 40, a Seahawks fan who made his way to Milan to root for his cousin, Hayley Scamurra, a member of the U.S. women’s hockey team. “I thought I’d be outside all night, but then they found some room and invited me in.
“I guess some Patriots fans were leaving,” Alf said.