Televised Women’s Sports To Find A New Home At A Bar Of Their Own

Jillian Hiscock loves women’s sports. She is a season ticket holder for the Minnesota Lynx, the Minnesota team that represents the Women’s National Basketball Association, and an avid watcher of other women’s sports teams.

Before going to games, she often goes to a bar or restaurant. The TVs surrounding her show men’s sports and men’s sports only. Whether it’s professional teams or college level, none of the TVs show women’s sports.

Hiscock decided something should be done about this. Enter: A Bar of Their Own.

Launched to the public this past September, A Bar of Their Own stemmed from The Sports Bra, the first bar in the U.S. dedicated to women’s sports in Portland, Oregon.

Hiscock loved the idea and wondered what it would take to get something like that in the Twin Cities, but she never thought she would be the one doing it.

“People just kept saying ‘It has to be you. It’s you, you know people, you know the beer industry, the food industry, you know sports. It’s gotta be you,’’ Hiscock said.

With the support of her wife, A Bar of Their Own was born in July of 2023.

The Twin Cities has a place where they can come watch women’s sports for the first time in history, watching with others who are women’s sports lovers as well.

“To me, I keep coming back to watching women’s sports in community with other people, and the power that that experience can hold for people,” Hiscock said.

Everyone and anyone is invited to A Bar of Their own, as Hiscock said she welcomes people from all walks of life to come into her restaurant.

“I don’t want this to be conceived that you have to be a hardcore women’s sports fan or you have to be a woman to come,” Hiscock said. “I think it’s important when we think about that community, not just to see people that look and feel and walk like us all the time.”

Hiscock’s goal is to have the restaurant be diverse and welcoming, but also to make sure people don’t misinterpret the restaurant. Hiscock said she expects the queer community to be a major part of the crowd, but that doesn’t mean A Bar of Their Own is just for the queer community.

“We don’t call bars ‘straight bars,’ we don’t call sports bars ‘men’s sports bars,” Hiscock said. “We have this labeling addiction with underrepresented communities, which I don’t want to downplay because representation is important, but that doesn’t need to define our entire business and who we are.”

Hiscock is queer and wants her restaurant to be a place where the queer community can come and feel safe, but she is also focused on making the restaurant inclusive for everyone else as well.

“These places can exist if we think about what each of these populations are looking for,” Hiscock said. “We are looking for a place where we feel safe and feel like we belong.”

Anybody who opens their own restaurant is expected to face challenges along the way, but Hiscock takes those challenges and considers them opportunities to learn. She looks towards her supporters to learn from their knowledge in order to get through any obstacles.

One of those supporters, along with many others, is Jade Denson, one of Hiscock’s best friends and shared season ticket holder for the Minnesota Lynx.

Denson said she is beyond excited to have a place she can always go to when she wants to watch sports. She talked about moments in the past where she would call ahead at the sports bar she would go to to make sure they would broadcast a women’s sports game.

“Every time someone walked up, I was worried they were going to ask to have something else put on the screen because it’s happened to me so many times,” Denson said.

The content she wants to see will always be available at A Bar of Their Own, and Denson said she cannot wait to be able to go there and talk about women’s sports with others.

With the bar opening planned for early March, there is plenty that Hiscock and her supporters are looking forward to.

“For that to be the norm for people, that elevating and lifting up women athletes doesn’t have to be a one-time event that happens once a season,” Hiscock said. “You’re going to watch it and that’s going to be the game every day.”

For those working with Hiscock and supporting her along the way, it’s been inspiring to watch A Bar of Their Own come to fruition.

“It’s been really inspiring and made me think about ‘What’s my thing? What is something I feel so passionate about that I could pour my all into?’’ Denson said. “She’s literally putting sweat, equity into it, all of her time and creativity and I think it’s really incredible to watch someone go after the thing and figure it out.” 

The excitement and anticipation for opening weekend of the bar is apparent with everything Hiscock has put into her restaurant. She has dedicated the past months making sure the restaurant can be a place people can call their own.

“This is a dream I didn’t know I had two years ago,” Hiscock said. “I know that it’s not my dream and so many other people have a shared dream of what this space can be. We all deserve a place where we don’t have to feel like afterthoughts.”

A Bar of Their Own
2207 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis
www.abaroftheirown.com