Upcoming Events 🤩

Happy Hour Takeover

🗓️ Wednesday, February 19
⏰ 3-6 PM

Wear your Everyone Watches Women’s Sports™ gear for a discount on your drink during Happy Hour!

TOGETHXR Trivia

🗓️ Thursday, February 20
⏰ 7:00 PM

"Physical spaces are great, but at the end of the day, they are just physical spaces — it's more about who you bring together and make feel comfortable. To make this space only about women's sports is really shortsighted because it really does come down to the communities that we're building and the people that we're making feel included. It’s a really proud moment that a place we've created can do that."

— Jillian Hiscock, founder of A Bar of Their Own

Hear from the Owner 🙌

Jillian Hiscock was tired of asking sports bars to show the games she wanted to watch, specifically games for the University of Minnesota softball team and Minnesota Lynx. Inspired by The Sports Bra, Hiscock opened A Bar of Their Own in March of 2024.

Do you have any advice for someone who might be inspired to start their own women's sports-themed establishment? 

Jenny (Nguyen, founder of The Sports Bra) was so inspirational and helpful when I first started that I've really been adamant about paying that forward whenever somebody reaches out.

My advice is to decide what things will be the hallmark of your business. For us, it was unapologetically prioritizing women-owned businesses beyond sports. We're always doing the extra work to ensure we are working with women-owned companies whenever we can, which has resonated really well with our community. I know that's not possible for everybody. 
So for somebody else, it might be doing special features or working closely with a community or team that is a cornerstone of their business.

We've been well received because our identity is very clear for people to understand. People know what we're about and what we stand for. I'm unapologetic in my support for things that some call controversial, right? To me, it was non-negotiable. I wasn't going to own a business like this and not take a stance on transgender athletes in sports and politics because it’s all so intertwined in sport. I know that not everybody has that freedom, but for me, that was non-negotiable. 
It's fine if you don't take that stance, but just existing as a women's sports bar, you will get called into a lot of these conversations. Feel confident and strong about where you stand and who you want to be as a business.

Were you an athlete growing up and if so, what'd you play? 

Yeah, I played tennis, gymnastics, and softball in high school. Gymnastics was my first love, so that's where I started. But now, I'm your classic rec-league everything — softball, kickball, dodgeball, tennis, pickleball. You name it.

What was your biggest challenge in opening up A Bar of Their Own, and how did you overcome it?

I think the biggest thing is spreading the message that we are a place for all people and dispelling the idea that we don't want men, families, non-queer people, and other groups to come in. That continues to be a challenge — the messaging that so many people hear is that women's sports is for queer women or for a particular demographic. The reality is women's sports fandom goes much beyond any one group.

We still get calls asking if we’ll show Vikings games. No, we won’t, but 25 bars around us will. Those calls crack me up a little bit. People are still not used to women's sports being a priority. Then folks will call and ask if we’re showing the Minnesota Frost games, and I'm like, of course, we're showing the PWHL games. So it's really about retraining people's brains — women's sports is for everybody. We are for everybody.

This should be the new norm — I would love it if exclusively women's sports bars got to a point that they didn't need to exist because you trust that you could go to a general bar down the street and they would also be showing women's sports.

So I think that's spreading that message and just continuing to reiterate over and over, like, no, we're not discriminatory and everyone can watch women’s sports here.

Tell us about a rewarding moment you've experienced since opening.

I love this example — it shows the importance of community and the power of building community around these spaces. I got contacted on social media by two women from Wisconsin who were coming to Minnesota to get married because they wanted to get married in a queer-friendly state. They were supposed to come to Minneapolis that day, and their witnesses had just tested positive for COVID. 
So they needed to find two people in Minneapolis willing to be witnesses for them. They asked if we knew of any nonprofits or organizations they could contact for help. I immediately jumped on my team message to my staff and told the team their story.

Two of my bartenders went and were witnesses for them. These two women and their four children had driven here from Wisconsin. I was working at the bar that day, and so I started trying to do stuff for them. I reached out to a local flower company down the street, and they made a wedding bouquet in under 45 minutes after I told them what was going on. We picked up this absolutely stunning, gorgeous bouquet. My neighbor's a baker, so I filled him in and he gave us a wedding cake. Everything was donated. Everybody just agreed — we want to show up for these people in this really uncertain time.

I prepped all the customers at the bar because I told the couple to come for a celebration dinner after their ceremony. We played a wedding song when they walked in, and everybody was bawling, including random people at the bar that didn’t know this couple.

Physical spaces are great, but at the end of the day, they are just physical spaces — and it's more about who you bring together and make feel comfortable. It's so cool that a women's sports bar was able to make this incredible event happen for this family and for those at the bar.

To make this space only about women's sports is really shortsighted because it really does come down to the communities that we're building and the people that we're making feel included. It’s a really proud moment that a place we've created can do that. 


Few Favs:

Favorite item on the menu?

I would absolutely say our throwback chicken wings. They're our best-selling item — people travel to get them.

Favorite women athletes that are playing right now?

I have to say Kayla McBride. She’s one of my favorite athletes and just one of my favorite humans. 
She's absolutely incredible. I also want to give love to Jocelyn Alo. She’s an incredible athlete using her platform in a really intentional way. I would be absolutely remiss not to include Paige Bueckers — a Minnesota girl that we love very dearly here in our/her home state. We’re really, really proud of the work that she's doing and, again, how she uses her platform beyond sport.

Favorite sport to play and your favorite sport to watch?

As an aging adult, my favorite sport to play is softball, and my favorite to watch is gymnastics.