SF's first Algerian restaurant runs out of food before World Cup match in Santa Clara

SF's first Algerian restaurant runs out of food before World Cup match in Santa Clara

Mounir Bahloul, the owner of Kayma Algerian Eatery, stared at the massive crowds at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium (Levi's Stadium) on Monday night after closing his restaurant early for the second time in four days.

"Crowd management, like all the teamwork in here? We did that at Kayma down the whole block," he said while watching stadium security conduct crowd control. "It's a good problem to solve. (We have) less than a 1,000 square-foot dining room. I can not handle a stadium crowd."

Bahloul and his wife, Wafa, opened Kayma Algerian Eatery in 2017 as the first Algerian restaurant in the Bay Area.

With Algeria playing a World Cup match in Santa Clara, Bahloul expected more customers, but didn't expect to run out of food.

Last Friday, the restaurant had to close early after being wiped out. Wait times were averaging 1.5-2 hours, according to Bahloul.

"We were low on stock, on everything. Saturday, we had to stay closed for the whole day for prep," he said. "People (have been) coming from all over the world. All over the United States."

On Monday, the restaurant was forced to close early again after running low on product.

"My wife is like, 'How are we going to keep doing this?' I said don't worry. Technically, after a few games, it's going to slow down," Bahloul said before pausing to chuckle. "If we make it to the next round, it's going to be bigger."

Algeria rallied in the second half of the match and won 2-1 against Jordan. They play against Austria on Saturday for a potential spot in the knockout round.