Jon Arnold - @ArnoldcommaJon
MIAMI — Take a stroll in North Miami Beach and you’ll see diners tucking into empanadas at Manolo. A soccer match in Argentina - on this night the third-division contest between Sacachispas and Talleres - plays live on screens above them. Another few steps, it’s Banchero, serving pizza in the Argentine style (hope you like onions), the same way the owners’ family still offers pizza in Buenos Aires neighborhood La Boca. Just a block away, past an Argentine bakery, is the now-famous Prima Pasta. It’s owned by an Argentine and had a star turn earlier this month when it received a visit from Miami’s newest, most-famous Argentine, Lionel Messi.
As **Messi** prepares for his **Inter Miami CF** debut in Friday’s **Leagues Cup** match against Cruz Azul, sightings of the world champion have become much more traditional: He appeared in a presentation at DRV PNK Stadium and has twice trained at sessions partly open to the press. Yet here in “Little Buenos Aires” and beyond, Messi feels very present in Miami, even if he isn’t physically walking into restaurants and supermarkets.
Everywhere you look, someone is selling or wearing his jersey. His painted face smiles from murals on the Wynwood Walls and beyond. At the iconic Books and Books in Coral Gables, both English and Spanish titles featuring writing on Messi and his career are highlighted as staff picks. From the club-goers on South Beach to the literary set down south, everyone is talking about Messi.
Maxi Alvarez and his brother Cristian were ahead of their time when it comes to being Messi fans - even more with the boom of new Inter Miami fans seen this week leading up to the Cruz Azul clash. The Alvarez brothers moved to the U.S. during the 2001 wave of immigration from Argentina during an economic crisis, but it wasn’t until 2012 that they opened their restaurant Fiorito.
Rather than a fancy feel, Alvarez’s concept is a bodegón, an Argentine spot to hang out, eat traditional food, sip a drink and watch the game. Named after legendary Argentina player Diego Maradona’s home neighborhood, Alvarez put a mural of Messi outside the restaurant in 2018, fed up with the disrespect the player was getting after falling short of winning the 2016 Copa América Centenario in the final.
“There was a time when Messi was really criticized, but we always valued who Messi is as a person, a player, a human, and an ambassador of our culture as well,” Alvarez said.
Also being ambassadors of Argentine culture in another country, Fiorito’s owners felt a connection and wanted to continue to show support for their icon. They never expected he would be playing a few miles up the road. “It’s an honor. The city has been revolutionized,” Alvarez said. “Even with the storm Sunday, we all were there and more than anything with him it’s about showing that we’re thankful. The way he’s represented us, you just want to say thanks.”
Alvarez said he dreams of the day Messi himself might come in and enjoy an atmosphere that surely will remind him of Rosario and visits home while he played in Europe. He’s invited him through friends of friends and other connections but is yet to have the pleasure of serving him. For now, plenty of others are stopping by.
“It seems being Argentine is now fashionable in a way. We’re a very neighborhood restaurant, so we don’t depend on tourism as much as other places, but with all the marketing and publicity, more people are coming in after taking a picture with the mural” he said Tuesday. “Yesterday, it was a lot busier than a normal Monday. We did 30 or 40 percent more sales than a normal Monday in the low season. You go to the stadium for the presentation and see people from all over, and you know it’s all going to keep growing.”
Not far from Fiorito in the Little Haiti neighborhood, John Hickey runs Golaco Kits. After doing a brisk online business, he and his co-owner opened a storefront packed with vintage soccer shirts, hats and other vintage soccer ephemera for sale. Displayed by confederation, then by country, it’s the type of store that appeals to hardcores who know their LAFC from LA Galaxy and Pumas UNAM from Tigres UANL. Yet, Hickey said he knew Messi’s arrival would be a huge moment for the city because of the people who reached out to him after the star’s interview.
“Messi already changed the soccer scene in Miami,” he said. “When he was announced I didn’t get one call from “soccer people”. The ones who messaged me were all friends and family members who don’t watch the sport regularly, if at all.
“But Messi is one of those athletes that transcends the four lines (of the field). You can never watch a soccer game in your life and know exactly who Messi is. The overall interest for Inter Miami and the sport in general has risen.”
Hickey has seen that manifest itself not only in more requests for new and vintage Messi shirts but also in the makeup of the clientele seeking out shirts. More young kids come in, some already in love with basketball or baseball but beginning to have their interest in the beautiful game piqued.
Further west in Doral, there already are plenty of soccer fans thanks in no small part to the area’s sizable Venezuelan population. It’s there that Argentina native Juan Pipkin opened Prison Pals Brewing Co. in 2020.
When he heard about Messi’s decision to come to South Florida, he immediately dreamed up a tribute, putting his marketing team to work. The final result was the company’s award-winning premium lager canned with special-edition labels in the style of Inter Miami’s black or pink shirt reading “GOAT 10”.
Only Pipkin and his crew could’ve come close to the popularity of Messi and Sergio Busquets at Sunday’s unveiling event, pulling up with a cooler full of the GOAT beer and handing it out to thirsty tailgaters.
The brewery’s three taprooms already serve as a place to watch Inter Miami games, with Pipkin saying he’s always promoted away game watch parties at his taproom. Now, he thinks Argentines and fans from outside Latin America are more likely to visit and enjoy a few beers while they watch the game.
“We’re small but growing,” he said. “Obviously people are going to come watch the games, and we have a bar close to the stadium, so it’s going to be really great.”
He’s already thinking about what a special release could look like ahead of the 2024 Copa América, something he has more time to plan for than Messi’s sudden announcement and his upcoming debut in Leagues Cup play.
The business owners came about their love for Messi honestly, some having traveled far and wide to see Messi play in person or taking time off to see Messi play in previous matches in Florida, like a friendly against Honduras at Hard Rock Stadium in September 2022.
Now, they have an extra reason to root for Messi and Inter Miami to have success in Leagues Cup, to move on and have even more matches that will have everyone from Little Buenos Aires and Little Haiti to Coconut Grove and Oakland Park watching to see what the little magician can do next.
When he heard about Messi’s decision to come to South Florida, he immediately dreamed up a tribute, putting his marketing team to work. The final result was the company’s award-winning premium lager canned with special-edition labels in the style of Inter Miami’s black or pink shirt reading “GOAT 10”.
Only Pipkin and his crew could’ve come close to the popularity of Messi and Sergio Busquets at Sunday’s unveiling event, pulling up with a cooler full of the GOAT beer and handing it out to thirsty tailgaters.
The brewery’s three taprooms already serve as a place to watch Inter Miami games, with Pipkin saying he’s always promoted away game watch parties at his taproom. Now, he thinks Argentines and fans from outside Latin America are more likely to visit and enjoy a few beers while they watch the game.
“We’re small but growing,” he said. “Obviously people are going to come watch the games, and we have a bar close to the stadium, so it’s going to be really great.”
He’s already thinking about what a special release could look like ahead of the 2024 Copa América, something he has more time to plan for than Messi’s sudden announcement and his upcoming debut in Leagues Cup play.
The business owners came about their love for Messi honestly, some having traveled far and wide to see Messi play in person or taking time off to see Messi play in previous matches in Florida, like a friendly against Honduras at Hard Rock Stadium in September 2022.
Now, they have an extra reason to root for Messi and Inter Miami to have success in Leagues Cup, to move on and have even more matches that will have everyone from Little Buenos Aires and Little Haiti to Coconut Grove and Oakland Park watching to see what the little magician can do next.
