KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bars across the Kansas City metro are getting ready for a game that fans have been anticipating for more than 50 years: the Super Bowl.
"It feels like we are about to go to war," said Kennady Gales, a bartender at the Brooksider Sportsbar and Grill.
The bar and restaurant has been packed week after week throughout the NFL season, ramping up once the Chiefs reached the playoffs.
But the AFC Championship Game against the Tennessee Titans on Jan. 19 was unlike anything the Brooksider had seen before. Hundreds of people nearly drained the bar of all its booze.
"At one point, we had no bottled beer left, like at all," Gales said. "We were out of Jameson (whiskey) and Tito's (vodka) by the first quarter."
Luckily for fans, the restaurant’s distributors were able to bring in more alcohol. For the Super Bowl, the Brooksider has made sure it will have enough food and alcohol to satisfy all of its guests.
"Both of our coolers are stacked to the brim of White Claws and canned and bottled beer, and all of that stuff. It's probably about 10 times more than we get weekly," Gales said.
For fans in Kansas City, finding the perfect spot to watch the game could still be tough. In the Power and Light District, the sports bar No Other Pub was at maximum capacity — slightly more than 700 people — for the AFC Championship Game, employee Kallen Duryea said.
No Other Pub was taking reservations for tables for the Super Bowl, but the bar is now full. The bar and restaurant would not specify an exact price for a table and said that’s partially determined by the guests.
"Some of that is determined a lot by what the guest wants,” Duryea said. “But then again, it is very important for people that is not a requirement for all of our spaces.”
One fan at the Brooksider told 41 Action News he has spent money for big-time sporting events in the past.
"It was $750, and that was food and drink (for) up to 10 people," Chiefs fan Mike Wink said.
Wink said that total included the table, as well as food and drinks at McFadden’s for the 2015 World Series.
He said when it comes to possibly buying a table for this Sunday, "For the Chiefs, there is no maximum."
