As hundreds of sports bars in San Francisco prepare for big crowds this Super Bowl weekend, one is preparing to cater to a demographic that has long been neglected.
“The bar is not only going to be for women who want to watch sports. It’s for everyone who wants to watch women’s sports,” said Sara Yergovich.
Sara Yergovich and Danielle Thoe are the co-founders of Rikki’s, a new women’s sports bar that’s slated to open this spring.
“We want it to feel comfortable, like a living room, and, like, not too pretentious,” said Thoe. “A place that you want to come to watch a game but also just to hang out when there’s not a game on.”
Women’s leagues like the NWSL and WNBA have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. At the same time, so have women’s sports bars with new locations popping up around the country.
Yergovich and Thoe said they got the idea to open one here in San Francisco two years ago.
“We play soccer together, and we had just finished a soccer game,” said Yergovich. “And I overheard Danielle walking ahead of me talking to a friend, saying something like I wish I could open a women’s sports bar, and I rudely ran up and interrupted her and was, like, I want to do that too.”
The first order of business was picking a name, something that would reflect the local history of San Francisco.
“So started looking into previous female-oriented bars, queer women’s bars, and what the names of those were and discovered the same owner of a few of them and that was Rikki,” said Thoe.
Rikki Streicher owned several queer and lesbian bars in San Francisco from the 1960s to the 1990s. Yergovich said Streicher was also a huge supporter of local women’s sports.
“And so it seemed like a perfect fit. We kind of freaked out when we were sitting on the phone together,” said Yergovich.
Thus, Rikki’s was born. Located off Market Street in the Castro, the bar is a perfect location for fans hoping to make a tradition of stopping by before Golden State Valkyries games.
“That is a big part of why we chose this location, absolutely, and also it’s accessible to people outside of the city and throughout the city as well,” said Yergovich. “We’re close to a bunch of different Muni lines and we’re walking distance to BART as well.”
They said there’s no firm grand opening date yet, but they’re targeting May, hoping to open their doors just as the Valkyries take to the court in their inaugural season.
“This is the time for women’s sports in the Bay Area, and we want to be a part of it,” said Yergovich.
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