The tournament opens today and runs through July 19. From Fruitvale to the Gilman corridor, East Bay operators are making specific bets — extended hours, themed menus, cultural programming — on soccer's longest commercial season.

The World Cup opened today in Mexico City, and across the East Bay, operators have already done the math: 38 days of matches through July 19, morning kickoffs as early as 9 a.m., crowds who eat and drink. Berkeleyside's Nosh counted more than 60 watch parties in the region alone — and the venues doing something specific with the food and the programming reveal how seriously the room is taking the event.

At Heads and Tails Barbecue on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, the answer is to stay open for every game through the tournament, some days running from 9 a.m. to midnight. The menu shifts by match time — tacos and burritos for morning games, $12 cocktails in the afternoon. On opening night, a Casamigos partnership brought giveaways for Mexico vs. South Africa.

Triple Rock Brewery, now 40 years on Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley, is running all Group Stage matches playing after noon. It's the kind of event the room was built for: a neighborhood institution with capacity and screens and a crowd that isn't leaving until the final whistle.

At Black Forest Kitchen on 25th Street in Oakland, owner Pierre Slack is opening the beer garden at 9:30 a.m. for Germany's first match on June 14. The programming leans in: Metbrötchen — a German raw-pork breakfast roll — alongside the döner kebabs the kitchen is known for, plus jersey giveaways and a torwandschießen, a penalty-target game. The bet is that German national supporters want a room where the occasion gets taken seriously.

The local angle goes deeper than pub programming. Eight international teams are training in the Bay Area, including the Australian Socceroos, who have set up base camp at the UCSF Health Oakland Roots and Soul Performance Center in Alameda — the former Raiders headquarters at 1150 Harbor Bay Parkway, confirmed in February as the team's official FIFA training site. The Socceroos' only Bay Area match is June 25 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara against Paraguay, which gives East Bay operators a specific target date for the big local crowd.

In the meantime, the Australia A la Carte program has lined up East Bay operators to feature Australian dishes through the tournament. Reem's is doing a Tim Tam Slam — the Arnott's biscuit-as-straw-in-hot-coffee ritual — adapted to the kitchen's pantry.

On June 19, the Gilman corridor in west Berkeley hosts a free block party from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. across four Group Stage matches. Hammerling, Donkey and Goat, and Tessier Winery are pouring on Fifth Street alongside SoDo Donuts and Lil Devil Noodles. It's a producers-in-a-corridor moment tied to a global tournament — which is about as East Bay as the World Cup gets this summer.