Arlington’s restaurants and hotels are welcoming tens of thousands of international visitors ahead of Copa America’s kickoff.
“This increases our presence across the globe. Tourists are going to be expecting amazing venues, hotels, entertainment and our job is to provide that,” Garcia said. “What I think this really does is bring international dollars into local cash registers.”, a Spanish restaurant that fuses foods from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, could benefit more than most. Weekends are already extremely busy at the lively eatery.
Benhamacht and Cafe Americana will be preparing a lomo saltado steak stir fry from Peru, a beef, potato and carrot empanada from Bolivia and salmon and shrimp from Chile, among other dishes. The items may one day find their way to Cafe Americana’s permanent menu if they’re successful enough, Benhamacht said.“We wanted to do food that was approachable but still classic cuisine. We didn’t want anything that would be too hardcore for our U.S. customers too,” Benhamacht said.