Pasta and pâté: This World Cup rivalry's tasty

Holding court at a table inside his restaurant, drinking a glass of red wine, Michele Zacco suddenly stops gushing about the elegance and technical genius of the Italian soccer team and puts down the scissors he's been using to cut out hundreds of Italian flag stickers.

"We are going to make foie gras out of the French," says Zacco, owner and head chef at the Pontevecchio Sicilian Bistro in Fremont, referring to the French delicacy of duck and goose livers, slowly mimicking with his hands the act of spreading butter on toast. "Liver pâté."

Ah, it must be time for the World Cup final.

Sunday's match in Berlin between European next-door neighbors France and Italy won't be just a battle between soccer superpowers for the sport's most coveted championship.

Even in Seattle, where the game kicks off at 11 a.m. local time, it's also an opportunity for the Italian and French communities to congregate, celebrate their storied cultures, and engage in the time-honored tradition of trash-talking.

"The Italians haven't beaten the French [in a World Cup match] since 1978," says Wilfried Boutillier, manager at Maximilien, a French restaurant at Pike Place Market. "The Italians talk too much. But that's what they do the best. If they want to come here and watch, they're welcome to. We want to see them cry."

Pontevecchio (710 N. 34th St.) and Maximilien (81A Pike St.) will each host a World Cup party for the public and show the game live.

Zacco, 45, who immigrated from Sicily 14 years ago, has planned an extensive menu: pizzas; Italian sausages; penne pasta dyed in Italy's colors — green, white and red; and of course, lots of wine.

The tables will be replaced with movie-style seating. Zacco plans to make everyone who comes to his restaurant wear the flag stickers on their cheeks.

Pontevecchio has drawn boisterous crowds for Italy's previous games, Zacco says, explaining they have taken to chanting, "Lock 'em in the trunk" whenever an opposing player takes a questionable fall, embracing the stereotype of New Jersey/New York Italian-Americans as "Sopranos"-style mobsters.

"We scream, we always come up with slogans," Zacco says. "Sometimes it's children-friendly. Sometimes it's obscene. Passion is passion, right?"

At Maximilien, the game marks the first time in a decade the restaurant's owners have allowed a television's blare to disrupt the romantic ambience inspired by fine French cuisine, creaky wooden tables and a panoramic view of the Seattle waterfront.

The restaurant will rent three TVs for Sunday, including two 50-inch flatscreens.

"We thought about getting them for the quarterfinals, then the semis," says Boutillier, 31, who immigrated from France 10 years ago and started working at Maximilien as a sous-chef. "People were coming up to us after each game. We knew there was a demand."

But many of France's earlier games were broadcast on ESPN, and it would have been a major hassle to install cable at the restaurant, Boutillier says. With the final on ABC, that argument is moot.

The restaurant's Sunday-brunch menu will feature French hot dogs, Toulouse sausages, chocolate croissants flown in from France and croque monsieurs and jambon-beurres (hot and cold ham-and-cheese sandwiches, respectively).

"Champagne if we win," Boutillier adds.

After every French victory in this year's World Cup, Boutillier has received a call from his parents back in France, updating him on the nationwide celebrations and raucous street parties.

Bastille Day, the French national holiday, is coming up on July 14, and he says one more win could propel France into a week-long frenzy.

Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com