At a bar crowded with red and teal-clad fans watching the Kansas City Current take on the North Carolina Courage, a handful of dark green and pinkish-red shirts stood out. They featured a martini glass logo with handles on the side like a trophy, olives replaced by tiny soccer and tennis balls. Some read “Support your local women’s sports bar” on the back.
The Dub, Kansas City’s first bar devoted entirely to women’s sports, hasn’t opened yet, but it already has fans. Owners Monica Brady and her wife Rachel Glenn have been hosting pop-up bar takeovers around the metro for months, generating buzz for a concept that’s already seen tremendous success in Portland, Minneapolis and Seattle.
It’s often hard to find a bar playing women’s sports even during major championships, Glenn said. The Dub will play only women’s athletics, with the sound on.
“We want it to be inclusive, not just to the big sports, but what are those sports that we don't even watch, but we want to get into?” said Glenn. “There's also an aspect we want to provide of, you know, I want to get into basketball. I want to get into football. I don't really know the rules, but I really want to be in that community.”
In the two and a half years since Jenny Nguyen opened the country’s first women’s sports bar in Portland, the audience for women’s sports has grown, bolstered by TV distribution deals that have made games easier to watch and breakout stars like Caitlin Clark and Ilona Maher who drew more attention to their sports.
Brady said she and Glenn have been kicking around the idea of a women’s sports bar since Portland’s Sports Bra opened. When the pair moved to Kansas City from Omaha last year, she drew up a business plan that they presented to friends and family.
“We said, we'll take it as far as we can. If there's a stopping point, we'll be really sad about it — maybe somebody else will do it,” Glenn said. “But it's come this far, and now we're really doing it.”
The Dub comes from W, as in “getting the W,” or getting a win. It also evokes women’s leagues like the WNBA, often shortened among fans to the W.
“An homage to women and winning,” Glenn said.
They’re now in a WhatsApp group chat with Nguyen and other women’s sports bar owners and owners-to-be, trading advice on marketing, merchandise, lease negotiation and capacity. In June, they visited A Bar of Their Own, the Minneapolis pub that opened its doors in March.
“I just burst into tears when we walked in,” Brady said. “I was just so ready for it to be, wanting to be where they are. And it's just beautiful to see it in action.”
The TV screens will focus on women’s sports, but the pair say they’re intent on welcoming fans of all genders and orientations – and will hire and train staff with an eye toward maintaining that inclusivity. Brady, who played soccer through high school, said it’s particularly important to create a safe space in light of recent legislation in Missouri and Kansas that restricts trans girls and women from playing sports that align with their gender identity.
“As a kid, sports was a place where I felt safe,” Brady said. “I'm so sad when I hear that there are kids in this world — and adults — that don't have that safe haven to go out on a field, or to a pool or someplace, and be able to perform at a place where they feel comfortable and they feel like they can be a true representation of themselves.”
Glenn and Brady have leased 107 W. 9th Street in Kansas City, the former downtown location of Australian bakery Banksia, and hope to open the bar before the end of the year. Brady, a certified sommelier, said good wine will be a focus, alongside nonalcoholic beverages, beer and cocktails.
“Rachel and I have an affinity for good cocktails,” Brady said. “One of the things we've always talked about when talking about this concept is the joy of watching a game, but also enjoying a good cocktail or a good glass of wine — going to a bar and just drinking beer gets old after a while.”
Like the Sports Bra, they want to draw ingredients from mostly women-, minority-, LGBTQ+- and locally-owned businesses. And they’re already brainstorming names for dishes and drinks after sports terms and well-known women’s athletes.
“Let's keep it light,” Brady said. “This is a place to come, have some fun and celebrate.”
Copyright 2024 KCUR 89.3
