NEW YORK – Signs of the World Cup were everywhere at Habana Outpost in Brooklyn on July 8: the country flags cross-crossing the patio, the footballs hanging from the ceiling.

But, for the first time in nearly a month, no football games were on any of the bar’s television or projector screens all day. After 96 games over 27 days – sometimes six in a single day – the World Cup took a break on July 8, giving a rest to teams, fans and exhausted workers at bars and restaurants.

“It’s a sigh of relief,” said Sadie Fein, 21, a bartender at Habana Outpost. “It’s like, OK, maybe I’m going to be a little bored, just because the difference is so crazy.”

Across New York City, bars, restaurants and their staff have been hosting formal and informal World Cup watch parties daily since June 11, drawing crowds of football-obsessed fans.

The crush of football games overlapped with the citywide frenzy over the New York Knicks’ run to the NBA title, leaving hospitality workers with little time to catch their breaths.

Habana Outpost, in the Fort Greene neighborhood, has been serving nearly 1,500 orders a night, compared with its usual summer high of about 1,000, Fein said.

Although the excitement and energy makes her job fun, Fein said lately she’s been spending more time in bed before her shifts to avoid burning out.

It is not just serving overcrowded tables and running food through dense crowds; it is constantly restocking ice, changing the kegs more frequently and throwing out extra-heavy bags of trash.

“It’s physically tolling on my body, because we have to stock everything up like five times the amount we normally would,” Fein, 21, said.

Still, the ga...