'It's a movement': Silver Lake is home to L.A.'s first women's sports bar

5 days ago 9

When Janie and Stephanie Ellingwood went to a section brewery 1 nighttime to ticker a U.S. Women’s National Team shot crippled with immoderate friends, they didn’t deliberation it would beryllium a large woody to inquire the unit to crook connected the sound.

The bartenders had ever been affable to the joined couple, who frequented the barroom astatine slightest a fewer times a week. And they were the lone patrons successful the tiny room, situated distant from the main viewing country wherever the measurement was connected afloat blast. So they were amazed erstwhile the unit curtly changeable down their petition without immoderate explanation.

Inside a barroom with greenery and flowers.

The Ellingwoods continued watching the nail-biting crippled with subtitles, but arsenic it got much and much exciting, customers began spilling implicit to their broadside of the bar. Before long, the tiny country was packed.

“We were each cheering,” says Janie. “We each gave each different high-fives.”

Still, the unit refused to crook up the volume.

The acquisition near the Ellingwoods, who are diehard fans of the L.A. Sparks and season-ticket holders for Angel City Football Club, wondering wherefore determination weren’t immoderate bars successful Los Angeles wherever they could comfortably ticker women’s sports without feeling ostracized. So they decided to make their own.

After months of searching for a location, the wife-and-wife duo took implicit different sports barroom successful Silver Lake — formerly known arsenic Trophy Wife — and turned it into Untamed Spirits, the archetypal women’s sports barroom successful the metropolis of L.A.

Opened successful aboriginal June to coincide with Pride Month, Untamed Spirits joins a abbreviated database of bars successful the U.S. dedicated to women’s sports, including Portland’s Sports Bra, which is expanding to 4 caller cities including Las Vegas and Boston; Rough & Tumble successful Seattle; Minnesota’s A Bar of Their Own; and Rikki’s successful San Francisco. Long Beach’s Watch Me! Sports Bar, which opened its doors past July, was the archetypal successful California.

Stephanie, 37, who played nonrecreational play for a fewer years, felt that L.A. needed thing similar this. “Something that’s a small spot classier, that isn’t sticky erstwhile you enactment your arms connected the bar,” she describes.

“For once, I privation to ticker a crippled astatine the barroom with dependable connected alternatively of immoderate random spot successful the corner,” Janie, 34, adds.

An worker cooking wings astatine Untamed Spirits

On a caller Tuesday night, Janie was down the antagonistic pouring drinks, including their signature Angel City pinkish punch, for patrons sitting astatine the bar, which was adorned with rainbow flags and an Angel City Football Club flag. Meanwhile, Stephanie was floating astir the space, checking connected customers. The couple, who met portion playing volleyball unneurotic astatine La Quinta High School, besides tally a made-to-order croissant bakery based successful Orange County and remodel and negociate residential properties passim Southern California.

The barroom is sleek and modern — a neon pinkish motion reads “Welcome to the Untamed Era,” and whimsical achromatic and achromatic illustrations screen a fewer of the walls. Menstrual products are displayed connected the bath counter. The spacious patio is filled with plants and a motion that says “Watch Women’s Sports Here.” (There’s a TV successful astir each corner, truthful there’s nary atrocious seat.) Although Untamed Spirits specializes successful women’s sports of each kinds — adjacent the much niche ones similar kayaking, Janie says — the barroom besides plays men’s sports.

“Some radical mightiness telephone it a trend, but it’s not a trend,” Janie says. “I judge it’s a movement.”

Sitting astatine a array with a day and 2 friends, Marina Sobreviñas, 31, says she’s recovered that queer bars similar Hi Tops successful Los Feliz are much apt to play women’s sports, but she felt that “it’s astir time” determination is simply a spot dedicated to them. She recalls her acquisition trying to ticker the FIFA Women’s World Cup astatine a bar.

Bowl of kimchi fried atom astatine Untamed Spirits

“There was like, 1 World Cup TV retired of the 10 TVs they had going, and it was benignant of fascinating,” she says. “Like, ‘Am I’m the lone 1 wearing a jersey today? OK, nary problem.’”

Sobreviñas says that women’s sports are conscionable arsenic breathtaking arsenic men’s sports.

Lisa Marie Ornelas, 30, agrees. “Women [athletes], successful a way, person a small spot much to prove,” she says.

Untamed Spirits arrives successful L.A. astatine a clip erstwhile involvement successful women’s sports is expanding astatine a “meteoric pace” crossed the globe, according to Nielsen. The 2024 NCAA women’s hoops tourney averaged astir 19 cardinal viewers (with a highest of 24 cardinal viewers for the last crippled betwixt Iowa and South Carolina), an 89% bump from the erstwhile year. The WNBA draught assemblage jumped 511%, and wide involvement successful the league grew 29% betwixt 2023 and 2024. The National Women’s Soccer League saw a 17% boost successful involvement betwixt 2023 and 2024. With the heightened interest, advertisement spending besides increased: In 2024, TV advertisers spent $244 cardinal connected women’s sports, a year-over-year summation of 139%, according to TV selling steadfast EDO.

“Women successful wide person been playing large sports for a agelong time,” says Stephanie. “I conscionable deliberation the close radical who person the quality to enactment them successful the spotlight are yet noticing.”

More women’s sports bars are expected to unfastened passim the country. Jax Diener, who opened Watch Me! Sports Bar successful Long Beach with her woman astir a twelvemonth ago, recalls erstwhile women’s sports weren’t aired connected TV astatine all. She went to the archetypal WNBA crippled astatine the Forum successful 1997.

“We utilized to travel location aft those games that were truthful breathtaking and crook connected the sports that nighttime to spot the replays, and they weren’t adjacent mentioned,” says Diener. “It was arsenic if the league didn’t adjacent exist.”

Diener says she was excited erstwhile she heard astir different women’s sports barroom opening successful Southern California. “To me, it was truly important for them to cognize that we’re successful this together,” she says, adding that she has a substance thread with different women’s sports barroom owners wherever they stock advice. “This is not a competition. This is women supporting women.”

Untamed Spirits precocious became an authoritative barroom spouse of the Angel City Football Club, which has a bulk female-led ownership radical that includes Natalie Portman, Abby Wambach and America Ferrera. The Ellingwoods volition big their archetypal ticker enactment connected Sept. 7 erstwhile the ACFC takes connected Gotham FC.

Janie and Stephanie, who’ve been astatine the barroom each time since it opened, accidental they are excited to yet distill their ain spirits, big much events and ticker parties successful the abstraction and foster assemblage among women’s sports lovers.

“Some radical mightiness telephone it a trend, but it’s not a trend,” Janie says. “I judge it’s a movement.”