Chiefs fans lay claim to San Francisco SoMa watering hole
SAN FRANCISCO -- On Super Bowl Sunday, 11th Street in San Francisco will be a street divided.
Vlad Cood owns both Buzzworks and Butter, two bars that sit across the street from each other in SoMa.
"We're like, 'If we're going to do this let's just make it right. Let's just say Kansas City owns this bar.' Niners can own Butter and everybody's happy," Cood said.
He opened Buzzworks in 2016 and says Chiefs fans quickly claimed it as their own.
"We call dibs. You guys don't have anybody representing an out-of-town team so we want to start coming here," Cood recalls.
Vlad was quoting Cricket Miller, a Chiefs superfan and former Chiefs cheerleader who moved to San Francisco in 2015.
"It was just really sad because I was by myself and I needed that community. I needed that bond with other Chiefs fans," Miller said.
Miller says she eventually found a few other Chiefs fans and it was the handful of them that came to Buzzworks eight years ago to claim it.
She says that, in those first few seasons, there were only a dozen or so fans who would show up to the bar for the games but now they number in the hundreds.
"I would say more than 700 in the Facebook. We get people that travel that come to visit here. Tourists," Miller said.
That's why this Super Bowl is going to be so special.
Buzzworks is expecting a packed crowd of Bay Area Chiefs fans on Super Sunday but they also want to support the hometown team.
To do that, they plan on opening their sister bar Butter right across the street, to let Niners fans claim that bar as their home.
"This year, we're making sure that we let all the Niners fans know that they are welcome across the street. But here? This day belongs to the Chiefs," Cood said.
It's a day everyone on both sides of the street is excited for.
Vlad says he's prepared for some good old smack-talking between the fan bases.
When it comes to his preferred team, that's something he's keeping close to the vest.
"I'm rooting for the winner," Cood smiled.
