Daphne restaurants saw a Sunday rush as local football fans packed in to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers, turning neighborhood pizza joints and sports bars into miniature stadiums for the afternoon.
At Bentz’s Pizza, the transformation was hard to miss. The restaurant, already known for its black-and-gold decor, was overtaken by a wall-to-wall crowd of Steelers fans, with only a small cluster of Packers supporters holding down one end of the bar as a lonely green-and-gold outpost.
Owner Mary Beth Bentz, a Pittsburgh native, said the turnout was exactly what she had hoped for heading into game day.
“It’s just exactly what we expected. We have exactly the crowd we expected and we are just excited to share this with everyone,” Bentz said.
Even watching from hundreds of miles away from the stadium, Bentz said she couldn’t imagine spending the afternoon anywhere else, crediting the relationships she has built with regulars over the years.
“We have spent so much time building these relationships with all of the people that are here and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it,” she said.
A few miles away, Baumhower’s drew its own large crowd, though the mood there was more of a split decision. Fans of both teams filled the restaurant, creating a livelier back-and-forth than the mostly one-sided scene at Bentz’s. Packers fan Shane Hauge watched the game with a group of friends, confident his team’s early lead would hold up.
“The Packers will win by 14,” Hauge predicted.
Back at Bentz’s Pizza, longtime Steelers fan Zoltan Varga was rooting for a different result. Varga said his allegiance to the black and gold goes back to childhood.
“I’ve been a Steeler fan since I was a little child, so I came up from a product of the 70s. So it’s just going to make me feel that much better to see them gain fame,” Varga said.
Win or lose, Varga said his loyalty to the team wouldn’t waver.
“We’re still number one, no matter what,” he said.
Whichever side of the rivalry they were on, fans at both restaurants said the atmosphere made for a memorable afternoon. Super Bowl watch parties have become a staple for Daphne’s restaurant scene, giving local business owners a busy, high-energy boost and giving fans a place to cheer alongside fellow supporters rather than watch alone at home.
Local restaurant owners along the Eastern Shore say game-day crowds like these are among their busiest of the year, often rivaling holiday weekends in foot traffic. For spots like Bentz’s Pizza and Baumhower’s, Super Bowl Sunday has become as much a community tradition as a sporting event, drawing families, longtime regulars and transplants alike to root for their hometown teams together.