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Every Sixers fan in Philadelphia will get the same game on Thursday night. They will not all get a say in who profits from it.
The Sixers open the season at the Knicks on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, then play their home opener Thursday, Oct. 22, against the Cavaliers, also at 7 p.m. ET, on ESPN. It is the first home game of a season rebuilt around LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, who arrived in what NBC Sports Philadelphia called a high-drama summer, after the Knicks swept the Sixers out of the second round. A night this loud is a rare chance to point a crowd’s money somewhere deliberate.
The case reaches past Philadelphia. Joel Embiid was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and Cameroon’s president honored him with the Order of Valor after his Olympic gold. Britannica notes that his game grew after he studied tape of Hakeem Olajuwon, the Nigerian-born center, and that he was the first international player to lead the league in scoring. For readers in West Africa, a 7 p.m. ET tip is midnight in Lagos and Yaoundé and 11 p.m. in Accra, by my own conversion, because U.S. clocks are still on daylight time. The diaspora will be awake for this one.
Booker’s Restaurant & Bar and the Bayou Lounge, 5021 Baltimore Ave.
Start with the name. Saba Tedla opened Booker’s in 2017 and named it for Booker Wright, a Black waiter in 1960s Mississippi who served at a whites-only restaurant while running his own place for Black patrons. In 2023, Tracey and Cheri Syphax bought it in a $3.3 million deal, with part of the financing from a U.S. Small Business Administration loan.
For Sixers fans, Booker’s and the Bayou Lounge offers an inviting setting to catch the game while enjoying good food, drinks and company. Picture settling in with friends, sharing a meal and reacting to every big play in a lively neighborhood atmosphere. It is the kind of outing that can make watching basketball feel like a community experience rather than just another night in front of the television.
Source: Booker’s Restaurant and Bar
Gojjo, 4540 Baltimore Ave.
Habtamu Shitaye and Frehiwot Desta left Ethiopia for the United States in 1990. They went on to build Gojjo, whose name means cottage and whose stained-glass sign nods to the Irish tavern that once stood nearby. 6abc described it in 2021 as family-owned, with their adult children carrying the tradition on, and listings put the bar at 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. It is a low-key neighborhood bar and singles out its berbere-spiced cheesesteak. A 2020 Billy Penn guide lists sports watch parties among its events. My view: a Sixers game next to an Ethiopian cheesesteak is Philadelphia in one sentence.
Source: Yelp
Read also: Philly’s 5 Black-Owned Bars Perfect for Couples’ Date Nights
ERA, 2743 Poplar St.
Aklilu “Aki” Senbeta opened Era in 2002, and it has been a Brewerytown corner bar serving Ethiopian food ever since. It is among the city’s best dive bars, with a huge U-shaped bar, and is included as a place to watch matches. It has already shown it can host a game crowd.
Sixers fans who want to catch the action outside their living rooms should visit ERA. They offer a laid-back neighborhood atmosphere where basketball, Ethiopian food and good company can come together. Enjoy a meal and share the excitement of every big play. Whether the Sixers are making a comeback or defending a narrow lead, watching alongside fellow fans could make the experience even better.
Source: Corner
Two Locals Brewing, 3675 Market St., University City.
Richard and Mengistu Koilor started Two Locals as a nomadic brewery, brewing at Mainstay Independent in Northern Liberties while they raised money for a home in University City. Their first release, a Nubian brown ale, began as a homebrew recipe that won a silver medal in 2019. Fox 29 covered it as Philadelphia’s first Black-owned independent brewery. The Inquirer also reported in 2024 that it showed Phillies playoff games with the sound on. A taproom is not a bar in the classic sense, but a room that shows games with the volume up is doing the job. Go and have a feel.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
The home opener is one night, but the schedule is not. The Sixers have 13 weekend home games at Xfinity Mobile Arena this season, and a Christmas Day trip to the Lakers that will put the whole city in front of a screen. So treat Thursday as the first of many, not a one-off. Call ahead and ask whether the game is on. Order food, not just a drink. Tell the owner you came for the game. A Black- or African-owned bar does not survive on a single sold-out night, and no list can promise it will be open next year. What a fan can control is where the money goes on the nights everyone is already spending it.
Read also: Top 5 Black-Owned Restaurants/ Eateries To Visit In Philadelphia
Anand Subramanian is a freelance photographer and content writer based out of Tamil Nadu, India. Having a background in Engineering always made him curious about life on the other side of the spectrum. He leapt forward towards the Photography life and never looked back. Specializing in Documentary and Portrait photography gave him an up-close and personal view into the complexities of human beings and those experiences helped him branch out from visual to words. Today he is mentoring passionate photographers and writing about the different dimensions of the art world.
