In a city known the world over as a gay mecca, San Francisco has a glaring deficit — in women’s bars. Just two in the city cater to a lesbian clientele.
Enter Sara Yergovich and Danielle Thoe, thirtysomethings who met playing soccer with the San Francisco Spikes. They’re on the pitch to score one more with their new women’s sports bar, Rikki’s.
Located on Market Street, Rikki’s will be the first space dedicated to women in the Castro district in decades. The sports-themed restaurant and bar is slated to open in May.
The view outside Rikki’s Women’s Sports Bar in San Francisco’s Castro district | Rikki’s
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Neither of the business partners has a history in hospitality, but their day jobs in marketing (Sara) and affordable housing (Danielle), plus an advisory group well-versed in the restaurant and bar industry, promises a winning combination of skills and community support. They’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars based on their work so far.
LGBTQ Nation met the owners over Zoom: Sara from home in a cool white and gray — and trademark San Francisco — Victorian living room, and Danielle on-site at Rikki’s, seated by a bare wall soon to be covered in women’s and San Francisco sports memorabilia.
LGBTQ Nation: Who’s claiming credit for coming up with the idea to open a women’s sports bar? Sara or Danielle?
Sara Yergovich: (Laughing) Technically, Danielle. She made an offhand comment after a soccer game, and I rudely butted into the conversation and said, “I want to do that.”
Danielle Thoe: (Laughing) Yeah. It was on my mind for a long time and seemed like a big risk, but to have somebody else be like, “I want to do that!” and then to kind of dive in together and say, “Okay, how do we get there?” — yeah, it’s been great.
People who study these things say 60% of restaurants and bars fail within the first year, and 80% fail after five years. What makes you think you can beat the odds?
Yergovich: I think we have a special concept in a few different ways. One, opening a women’s space in the Castro is really important. It’s a missing space. But also, there isn’t a bar in San Francisco where you can reliably watch women’s sports, and there is a large women’s sports community in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
There are also two new professional teams here, the Valkyries, starting this year in the WNBA in San Francisco, and Bay FC (Bay Football Club) out of the South Bay that started last year in the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League).
Thoe: And a big part of it is, beyond just of being a bar or restaurant, it’s a community space. We’re proud about having found a space in the Castro to highlight women’s sports, which have a lot of women and nonbinary folks who are fans. So I think creating that space, and then to create events around that, that will bring people in.
How would you describe the atmosphere you want to create?
Thoe: What we’re going for is something that’s somewhere between, like, a friend’s living room and a comfortable, not-quite-dive bar? (laughing) You know, a clean space, but a space that isn’t pretentious, that feels warm and welcoming, somewhere you want to come, both to watch a game and where you don’t want to just get up and leave immediately right after.
We want people to feel like they can gather here after their own games, too. We met playing soccer. We want our teammates to come after games and hang out, whether there’s something on to watch or not. And as long as they support women’s sports, we welcome everyone.
Rikki’s is named for Rikki Streicher, who had a hand in at least two popular women’s bars in the city of the past, Maud’s and Amelia’s. How do women who patronized those bars describe them to you?
Yergovich: (Laughing) Fun!
Thoe: A home away from home. Or a home when you might have lost your home.
Yergovich: A family. That comes up a lot. Wild. (laughing)
Thoe: We’ve connected with a number of people who have worked at or patronized those bars and kind of been able to engage them in different pieces of the work here. We’re really cognizant of and appreciative of the work that Rikki and all of the staff and people who built the communities within those bars did. We — and the queer women’s community especially — wouldn’t be here without that.
The Lesbian Bar Project counts just 33 women’s bars in the U.S. today. There used to be a lot more. Is there a nostalgia among younger lesbians today for those lost spaces, or have they happily moved on to the apps and other ways of meeting?
Thoe: You’d have to ask those younger lesbians.
Yergovich: You did ask our ages at the beginning of this (laughing).
Yeah, you’re not that old.
Yergovich: (Laughing) It feels like there is, absolutely. Going to like, Mother or Jolene in San Francisco, there’s definitely a younger demographic that is really excited to connect with people in person.
What is the female version of a twink?
Yergovich: (Laughing)
Thoe: (Laughing) I don’t know. I don’t know that we have quite as defined… categories?
Yergovich: In one book that was talking about lesbian bars, women’s bars, they did call people who were very athletic in those bars “sporties.” Not quite the same as a twink, but maybe relevant for this conversation.
You two met playing soccer with the San Francisco Spikes soccer club. What role does sports play as an organizing principle for gay women?
Thoe: I think a really central one. You know, sports are, historically, a place where men dominated the conversation, whether you’re watching sports or playing sports.
When my mom was in school, there was a volleyball team and a basketball team — those are the only two women’s sports you could participate in. I think queer women are pushing the boundaries in a lot of ways of what a woman is supposed to look like, and women’s sports, especially in their infancy, did a lot of that, too. You can’t remove queer women from the growth of women’s sports in the bigger picture, and they create safe spaces and communities that, for me personally, have been super important in my life.
Yergovich: As a kid, I didn’t necessarily know I was queer, but knew that I didn’t quite fit in with all of the other girls. Sports were an outlet and a safe space for me to be more myself, and I feel that now as an adult. As I’ve joined different sports leagues, they’re typically a more accepting place for queer women specifically, and that is a different way of finding community than going just to like a big drinking party at a bar. Sports are a different way to connect with people.
How many screens will Rikki’s have, and how many hours of women’s sports programming are available to fill them?
Thoe: I think the hours are unlimited. With the growth of women’s leagues, it’s become a year-round thing. I’m trying to look at how many outlets we just put in.
Yergovich: I think we put in 16, but we already had two, so that’s 18.
Thoe: We just had electrical installed last week.
Like a lot of San Francisco businesses today, you’re a startup. There aren’t any venture capital funds devoted to bars and restaurants that I’m aware of. How are you financing Rikki’s, and who are you pitching to?
Thoe: We’re just finishing up our fundraise. The initial fundraising was really from people that we know, so we have a small group of equity investors who are friends, family, teammates of ours who heard about the idea, and a couple of them who continued to pester us to say, “Is it happening? Is it happening? When can I write a check?” — and just really believed in us and have continued to just uplift and appreciate the work that’s gone into this.
So that was the foundation. The rest of the funding we’ve secured via Wefunder, which is a crowd investment campaign platform. So, unlike a Kickstarter or a GoFundMe, people are investing money and then getting paid back over time. That has been a really good experience because it’s both been a marketing tool and it’s been a way for people who might not be able to write, you know, a $50,000 check, to invest in a bar — to pitch in $100 or $1,000 and all of that goes a really long way towards building the whole. It’s also helped us start to build the community that we want to welcome to the space once we open.
I think as of right now, just on the WeFunder, we have 222 investors because of the capability to invest smaller amounts.
How much have you raised?
Thoe: We hit our maximum goal, which is $425,000. It’s not totally closed out yet. There’s paperwork involved in these things, like the SEC — as long as they continue to be around — but we’ve hit that goal, which is really exciting.
Well, you brought it up. How are you feeling about the current president and, for instance, his “order” to ban trans women in sports?
Thoe: Awful.
Yergovich: Yeah. Really bad. I will say that with everything that has happened since he’s come into office, I have seen even more support for what we are doing and more excitement for what we are doing. It feels like people have kind of latched on to this as, “Maybe bad things are happening, but there are some good things that are happening too.” And they’re trying to really hold on to that.
Specifically talking about the trans ban in sports, I’ve noticed that the women’s sports bars across the country have been more vocal than a lot of other organizations in condemning that. And I’m happy to be part of that community.
Thoe: As an athlete, I’ve shared the field with trans women, men, people of all gender identities on my teams and there’s never been an issue. There is not an issue, writ large, point blank. There’s not an issue of trans individuals participating in sport. Anybody who wants to play should be able to play.
Our definition of women’s sports is broad and all encompassing. It’s hard to fit that in just a couple sentences when you’re describing the space and what we’re building. But trans athletes belong in sports. They are some of our investors, our backers, our community members, and so that’s something that we’ll really look to highlight and make clear as we continue to get up and running.
San Francisco is notorious for red tape. What’s the most surprising or frustrating or crazy thing you’ve experienced working with the city?
Thoe: Weirdly, the most surprising thing is that we haven’t hit red tape yet in San Francisco. And part of that’s by design.
My background is in affordable housing development, so jumping into this process, I definitely came in eyes wide open. Everything’s difficult in getting a bar up and running, but we’re purposefully utilizing a second-gen space, so there’s no change-of-use permit that we’re applying for. We’re not moving any walls. We were very purposeful in our space search to try to streamline that as much as possible.
One of the really great things that we’ve been beneficiaries of is the city’s “First Year Free” program, where, after the pandemic, new businesses get almost all the building permit fees waived. Other than registering our business, we have not paid a fee yet. We had a site evaluation with a Department of Public Health inspector to get advice about upgrades or changes needed in the space to pass health code, and that’s free because of that program. So it’s been a good experience.
Yergovich: And the Office of Small Business has also been incredibly helpful connecting us with the right people and talking through different steps. And actually just checking up on us, seeing how things are going.
There’s a really popular sports bar in the Castro called High Tops, just a few doors up the street from you. How popular is it with women, and will you be actively poaching them?
Yergovich: I don’t know about actively poaching (laughing).
Thoe: I will still actively be getting fried chicken sandwiches and nachos at High Tops on the regular. We reached out to them and one of the co-owners there responded with a lot of excitement. I think there’s some real synergies between having a male-oriented sports space nearby a female-oriented sports space, and I’m hopeful we can do some fun stuff once we get open. This stretch of Market Street has seen a lot of new businesses and investment, so the more the merrier. The more this is a destination, everybody’s businesses will succeed.
Yergovich: And there isn’t a women’s space in the Castro. Since announcing, that’s what the other business owners have really focused on. There is a need for a women’s space in the Castro and excitement that we are going to do that.
Is there going to be intermural competition between you and High Tops?
Yergovich: I hope so!
Thoe: Bring it on.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
