Photo by Andrew Sherman
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Some Deep Ellum business owners are uncertain about exactly what the plan is for the World Cup this summer. Others aren’t too worried about it. One thing they all agree on is that it’s an opportunity for the entertainment district to gain some momentum.
North Texas is expected to host millions of visitors during the tournament’s nearly two-month run. Sweden and Czechia are making the region their home base for the tournament. The area’s nine scheduled matches are more than any other host city and will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, which is being renamed Dallas Stadium for the World Cup under FIFA licensing rules.
Officials estimate the tournament could generate up to $2.1 billion in economic impact throughout North Texas. And if there’s a neighborhood that could use some business right now, it’s Deep Ellum.
Dallas has a somewhat mercurial relationship with the neighborhood. Up or down. Trendy or dangerous. Between seemingly endless construction that has torn up Commerce Street and well-publicized public safety issues, the last few years have been tough for business owners. At least 30 restaurants, bars and music halls have closed since 2020.
But several have opened lately. The city has a new crime-reduction plan that puts more police officers on the street, and a few owners have said they’ve seen a difference. Recently redesignated as a ‘Restaurant Row’ to help revitalize the street, Commerce could fully reopen as an expanded throughfare with wider sidewalks by the end of the year, offering a light at the end of the tunnel for the neighborhood.
And in the meantime, the World Cup may give businesses the adrenaline shot they need during typically slow summer months.
The Beautiful Game on Elm?
Jeff Biehler owns Dusty’s, the music-forward second iteration of Cheapsteaks that debuted last August. It’s located on Elm Street, and he says Dusty’s is in the “suburbs” of the neighborhood and hasn’t been affected as much by construction or crime, which, in his opinion, has improved with the expanded police presence.
Photo by Andrew Sherman
“I see a lot of positive things down there. From my point of view, I think these businesses are all going to hopefully thrive from it,” Biehler says. “I think it’ll be good. There’s a lot of people talking about it, and I think it’ll be really good for the economy.”
He says his business is still working on picking up customers, but thinks the neighborhood itself is starting to show signs of life.
“That’s already happening, and so I think that, yeah, maybe this could be a jumpstart to that. Maybe this could be the CPR needed to get it going,” Bielher says.
The plans for Dusty’s so far include hiring more staff to handle larger crowds, potentially changing karaoke night to feature World Cup themes and getting a projector to show the games. Past that, however, Biehler says there’s not much else he has in the works right now.
“I don’t know what else,” he says. “I mean, honestly, there’s not a lot of preparation we can do besides staffing and just getting ready to present things on TV for them.”
‘Nobody’s Giving Me a Roadmap’
Pete Zotos of St. Pete’s Flying Marlin also hasn’t gotten that far. But unlike Biehler, he’s more apprehensive about the lack of information he’s received.
“I’m scared that my best foot’s not going to be put forward because I don’t know enough,” Zotos says.
He says liquor distributors have yet to contact him about plans for the tournament, and he hasn’t received any promotional materials to market the bar to international visitors. “Nobody’s giving me a roadmap,” he says.
He’s also unsure whether or not he’ll add an automatic gratuity or charge more for a “World Cup Fee,” as he calls it, during the summer.
“My daughter, who’s in the food business, is like, ‘What are you doing with your menu? Are you going to pare it down? Are you going to make it easier for people to understand from different countries? Are you going to add the World Cup fee?’ I’ve heard some restaurants are like, ‘We’re going to change our menu and add 15% because we can,’ and so I’m not even sure about that kind of stuff.”
As reported by the local CBS affiliate, several Kansas City business owners are planning to add an automatic gratuity for the World Cup. Closer to home, the Observer reported recently that price increases in restaurants are likely inevitable as business owners grapple with declining sales, inflation and skyrocketing rents.
Zotos sees an opportunity for economic relief in Deep Ellum, where he says he has “been getting beat up for the last year and a half” with construction, but remains unclear on just how many fans will walk down Commerce Street come June and July.
“It might be a great opportunity where it just evens out to where you have a good month instead of a shitty month,” he says. “I wish I had a crystal ball to know exactly how many people that means.”
Not Sweating the Summer
Most restaurants and hospitality venues go through a summer downturn as customers travel and temperatures become uncomfortable. That effect is especially felt in Deep Ellum, says JR Munoz, owner of Will Call Bar, Right Side Pizza and Every Ellum Clothing.
“June and July … typically are the hardest months in Deep Ellum. Summertime is too hot, all the excuses that you could give on why it’s so slow out there during the summer, but [I’m] looking forward to actually having business this summer, rather than struggling waiting for football season to come.”
Crime spikes in June and July have hurt business in Deep Ellum during the summer months. But Munoz says the issue has been overblown, and he isn’t as worried about the situation during the World Cup.
“The city’s given so much attention to the World Cup, and I don’t think they don’t think they want anything bad to happen to the reputation of the city,” Munoz says. “So I think security is going to be ramped up.”
The Dallas Police Department recently received $22 million in grant funding for World Cup security, which Chief Daniel Comeaux has said will be mostly spent on overtime and salaries for officers providing security. Officials have also suggested that time-off requests will be restricted during the tournament’s run to ensure staffing levels are adequate.
Munoz’s plans for the World Cup include bringing in international bands, hiring more staff and opening for lunch even before the tournament begins on June 11. He might even look at offering special menus translated for international fans, but “doesn’t know how serious those talks will get.”
“I don’t think there’s a brochure for what small businesses are supposed to do in the situation,” Munoz says. “I think you just staff up and do what you do, and hopefully you get a crew every night coming in.”
World, Meet Deep Ellum
The Deep Ellum Foundation is a nonprofit organization that uses public improvement district tax money to provide improvements, security and marketing in the neighborhood. It also operates the Deep Ellum Community Center off of Elm Street.
Veronica Young, the foundation’s marketing director and a neighborhood resident, says the foundation will convert the space into a visitor center and has talked with the city about minimizing the construction’s footprint on Commerce during the World Cup. The foundation also plans to debut nearly 200 street banners designed by local artists to represent the tournament and participating countries.
“What I hope to happen is that the lasting impact that Deep Ellum has on so many of us makes its way around the world. … I think that more travelers will start making their way down here when they come to when they come visit Dallas,” Young says.
The organization has contacted some businesses about preparing for the World Cup rush and advised them to extend hours to maximize the economic impact of the influx of visitors.
Young says they are also working to obtain a license to show several games that can’t be viewed in Fair Park as the kickoff times fall after 10 p.m. That could bring more visitors to the neighborhood, and by extension, help business owners get more people through the door.
“Some of these businesses who work so hard all year long to make Deep Ellum what it is, I think it’ll put them on a global map,” Young says.
‘You Have To Survive Long Enough’
Jazz, or jazu, is big in Japan. At least according to The Japan Times, which reported in 2026 that more of the genre’s records are bought in the country than anywhere else in the world, and Hebert Wyatt of Mokah Coffee and Tea, whose expertise comes from his time studying in Osaka during college.
The Japan National Team, also affectionately known as the Samurai Blue, will play two games in Arlington. Wyatt says Deep Ellum’s rich jazz history could attract fans to the neighborhood, and he plans to add Japanese-language signs to help bring people in.
There has been a decent amount of information about what to expect as an operator, he says, but he also concedes many owners may be unaware.
“I think there’s been a lot of meetings and things going on, and at times, I think maybe business owners don’t necessarily know about the meetings, but there is a lot of information out there,” Wyatt says. “It’s just knowing that it exists that might be the issue.”
Fortunately for his business, Mokah Coffee is located on Taylor Street, not on Commerce, where construction is ongoing. But he’s hopeful the tournament can bring his neighbors on Restaurant Row a badly needed win.
“I’m hoping that the increase in business, and particularly the increase in foot traffic, coming through there, as we really kind of push that marketing towards Restaurant Row, can push a lot of bodies down that street to kind of help them through this period,” Wyatt says. “That street’s going to be amazing. But as a business, you have to survive long enough.”
