Eva Matischak (center), owner of the Heidelberg, is flanked by two of her lovely staff members. Photo courtesy Richard Deitsch

Posted by Richard Deitsch

Germany v. Costa Rica, The Heidelberg Restaurant, 2:20 p.m.

NEW YORK -- Kartofelpuffer.

If you are ever in Germany, it is a word that will serve you as well as danke and guten tag. Drenched in applesauce, this potato pancake goes down the gullet with panache and style, much the way German striker Miroslav Klose finished against Costa Rica today. It is early afternoon in New York City and I am at the Heidelberg Restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, soaking in the smell of beer, soccer and besotted German fans.

Over the course of the World Cup, this blog will take you inside bars, taverns and restaurants across America. We will drink up the local flavor, as well as pints of Grolsch, Negra Modelo and Warsteiner. We will samba alongside Brazilians. And sing with English ex-pats.

The Heidelberg prides itself on being one of Manhattan's favorite beer gardens. It has called Second Avenue home since 1908, though back then the place was called Cafe Fatherland. The waiters wear lederhosen. The waitresses are friendly and busty. (SI writer Stephen Cannella, a former Upper East side resident, warmly refers to them as beer fraus). And we haven't even gotten to the delicious Spaten Mai Bock on draft.

I am more than 4,000 miles from Munich's World Cup Stadium but when I arrive shortly after 11 a.m., I am feeling distinctly Deutsch. There are roughly 70 people at the restaurant, probably 30 percent German and one percent Red Bull. Veteran MLS player Steve Jolley, who has played against most of the members of the U.S. National team, is wearing a Bayern Munich jersey and sitting near one of the televisions. Like a one-man soccer Aesop, he will blog about his bar travels in New York City throughout the month.

The goals come quickly. Philipp Lahm of Germany scores to the roar of the patrons. There is shock and despair six minutes later when Paulo Wanchope levels the game for Costa Rica. Halftime produces a 2-1 Germany advantage, as well as orders of sauerbraten and bratwurst.

At the bar I sit next to Steve Brennan, who hails from Blackpool, England and earlier in the morning had a job interview with a private high school. (Only in America could a Brit want to teach U.S. history to the Mischa Barton set). Steve is a book editor and researcher and is currently working on the history of cod fishing in New Hampshire, which is perhaps why he has taken his girlfriend's advice to watch the game at Heidelberg. "Sorry, but I have to root against the Germans," he said, an Englishman making his country proud.

Alongside us is Evan Davis, a dead ringer for Michael Ballack and German on his mother's side. Davis played soccer at Colby-Sawyer and wore a German National Team scarf around his neck. He has benefitted today from a flexible work schedule: Davis is an actor and model. Our bartender is a Dane named Karina, who grew up in Skive, outside of Copenhagen. All the while Eva Matischak, the owner of the restaurant, dances around us, making sure the televisions are working and the sauerbraten is moving. "I invested about $10,000 in six televisions," she laughs. "I'll never earn it back."

Eva's parents bought the Heidelberg in 1964, two years after Brazil defeated Czechoslovakia in Chile. When Wanchope made it 3-2 in the 73rd minute, Eva looked like she had swallowed some bad schnitzel. "This is a nightmare," she said. Eva is a woman who knows her soccer from her schweinebraten. Her former husband, Klaus Matischak, played for Werder Bremen and has his own German Wikipedia entry.

In the end, Germany sent everyone home happy when Torsten Frings sealed it in the 87th minute. Chants rang out of "Deutschland, "Deutschland," and the party spilled outside, a slice of Germany in the middle of Gotham.