SEATTLE — The Atlantic Crossing has shook for more than two decades.

But it hasn’t always been in the same building.

Gareth Etchells, owner of the resilient Seattle soccer pub, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1989. The Englishman, then 21, moved from Cambridge to Los Angeles before rapidly relocating to Seattle. On Monday, nearly 37 years after following his then-partner to the United States, he said: “Seattle’s such a beautiful place. Honestly, I think if I’d gone anywhere else in the U.S., I probably would have ended up back in the U.K.”

Instead, Etchells — a Manchester United fan “since I was a tiny, tiny boy” — brought a bit of the U.K. to north Seattle. After bartending for years in a friend’s soccer pub, he ditched his day job in graphic design and printing to “push all our chips in.” In 2004, The Atlantic Crossing opened in Roosevelt, where Etchells cultivated a passionate patronage.

That’s not hyperbole. The Atlantic Crossing partnered with the Sounders and became the home bar of their Emerald City Supporters. It’s previously partnered with the U.S. Soccer Federation and the Reign as well. It’s Seattle’s official bar for English Premier League team Arsenal and hosts the local chapter of the American Outlaws, the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams’ largest supporters group. The bar has become synonymous with both a city and a sport.

But this is a uniquely Seattle story in more ways than one.

On Monday, while The Atlantic Crossing welcomed fans of Spain, Belgium and Egypt, etc., for the FIFA Men’s World Cup’s early games, it did so in different, less-divey digs.

“They’d been trying to redevelop the whole block for a long time,” Etchells said of the bar’s recent move out of Roosevelt. “After COVID, all the investment pulled out. But the landlord was not willing to give me more than a one-year lease extension every year. I did that two or three times, and that’s no way to run a business, not knowing if you’re going to get another year.”

So The Atlantic Crossing crossed I-5, relocating from Roosevelt to Green Lake in 2024. It left two decades of memories and grit and bar-shaking goals behind.

On the corner of 72nd Street and Woodlawn Avenue, a block from the lake, sunlight pours through the retractable windows of Etchells’ second Seattle stop. Nine televisions stream soccer, while the wooden bar sits against a wall of sleek, black brick. Framed Arsenal, Manchester United, Sounders and Reign jerseys hang between the screens.

As Eastlake resident Luis Omar said Monday while watching the noon Belgium-Egypt game: “I hadn’t been back since they moved here. Different vibe. But I’m happy to see people. That’s what I’m here for.”

Because it’s never really been about the building.

It’s about the people who make The Atlantic Crossing shake.

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They’re not all of the same people, Etchells admits.

“I wanted a place that was a different crowd,” he said Monday. “That 2 o’clock in the morning every night [crowd], in the dive-bar scene, is for men younger than me. You get to a point where we want to have people in with their kids.

“It’s a little more laid back. Still great, passionate soccer fans. But we’re not dragging people out at 2 o’clock in the morning who are swearing and swinging punches at each other. I’m too old. This is my grown-up place.”

The Atlantic Crossing is all grown up. Which is ironic, considering the kids. At 10:43 a.m., an empty keg cart was rolled out just as a man with a baby stroller rolled in. Earlier, a toddler in an overflowing red Spain jersey spiked his mom’s fanny pack, in apparent protest of the scoreless draw against Cape Verde. Etchells said food once represented 20% of his sales, but that number now sits at 50-60%.

On Monday, soccer fans of all ages and allegiances faced the many screens. Like Wendy Zane, who grew up in Green Lake and watched the Belgium-Egypt game with her mother, Sherry. Like friends Ben Arefaine and Ermias Hagos, who were both born in east African country Eritrea before moving to Seattle but didn’t meet until attending Western Washington University.

“We’re supporting Egypt because they’re our neighboring country in Africa,” Hagos explained. “We love soccer. We’ve always been excited and looking forward to the World Cup coming to Seattle. Because we have a beautiful city. So the energy and the international crowd coming in is very exciting.”

Ben Kerbaugh went to Pioneer Square on Monday to experience that energy. Afterward, while sporting an Ireland jersey at The Atlantic Crossing, he reveled in a positivity that even the current political climate couldn’t quell.

“It feels great to forget about all that crap for a while,” Kerbaugh said. “The world is one world, and this is such a unifying event. It’s fantastic.”

Likewise, The Atlantic Crossing felt blissfully unified. Belgian fans, Egyptian fans and enthusiastic Americans intermingled Monday, with an occasional Guinness greasing the wheels. The man who delivered them, Steven Davis, has spent 18 years in Seattle after moving from Scotland with his wife. His in-laws in Glasgow also own a soccer bar.

When asked to compare the pubs, he smiled and said: “It’s a bit more civil here.”

A bit.

“You can be as loud as you (expletive) want,” Omar said, when asked why he came to The Atlantic Crossing. “Everybody’s vibing. They’re energetic. They’re watching the game. They’re in tune.”

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The building still shakes. It better.

Because, then and now, Etchells’ chips are all in.

“Over the last 20 years I have made myself unemployable. This is what I do. I have no other skills,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh. “That’s partly true, not entirely true. Of course, I was also debt free before I opened this. Now I’m in debt. So it has to work. That’s the way it goes. Failure is not an option. You’ve got to spend money to make money, as they say. And these days you have to spend a lot of money to make a little bit of money.”

Good news: The Atlantic Crossing is making money. Despite rising prices and microscopic margins, Etchells reported that, “March this year was an all-time record month. May beat that. June will be an all-time record month. So we’re going in the right direction.”

Before Paris Saint-Germain met Arsenal in the Champions League final in May, 400 people formed a line hours early, stretching two-and-a-half blocks. While the U.S. pummeled Paraguay in its World Cup opener, “We ran out of every single beer, can and bottle on Friday,” Etchells said. “So I had to go to Costco to get more.”

The Atlantic Crossing may be a microcosm of the entire World Cup.

Here, we know all about the “Beast Quake.” But now, the wider world will see and feel Seattle shake.

“I’m very proud. Very proud,” Omar said of Seattle’s arrival on the World Cup stage. “We have a great culture here, great people, neighborhoods. I think it’s great for the world to see how passionate we are.

“That’s why I’m out here. Maybe a lot of people will come here that won’t go to the game. Let’s add to it. Because this is who we are.”

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