Topline:
Untamed Spirits in Silver Lake will be the first women’s sports bar in the city of Los Angeles and the second in the county.
The backstory: Owners Stephanie and Janie Ellingwood were motivated to open their own bar after noticing women’s sports weren’t getting the attention they deserved at sports bars. They join a small group of women’s sports bars in Southern California, like Watch Me in Long Beach.
Read on ... to learn about Saturday's grand opening.
Women’s sports bars, while still uncommon, are starting to carve out a place of their own across the U.S.
That’s the sentiment Stephanie and Janie Ellingwood were going for when trying to come up with a name for their new Silver Lake bar on Evans Street.
“I want us to be free and be able to watch what we want to watch and be who we want to be," Stephanie Ellingwood said.
And when their original plan to distill spirits in the new establishment didn't come through, they decided to honor that idea in the name Untamed Spirits.
The married couple are die hard fans of the L.A. Sparks and Angel City Football Club.
“Those are our main teams that are here in L.A., and we're Day One season ticket holders of ACFC,” Stephanie Ellingwood said.
The partners say they got their push to open a women’s sports bar of their own after an illuminating experience they had at one of their regular spots.
The Ellingwoods were watching a U.S. Women's National Team soccer game at a crowded bar. They asked the bartender to turn the volume on but were told no.
“ I thought that they would be nice enough to play the sound for us, but they did not. And it was just sad and upsetting because no one was watching anything else,” Janie Ellingwood said.
The two racked their brains for another place to go but came up short. That’s when inspiration struck.
“Right off that we're going, 'Well, why don't we just make one? Like why haven't we just done it?'” Stephanie Ellingwood said.
In May, the Ellingwoods began operating Untamed Spirits in the former site of Trophy Wife in Silver Lake. The bar's grand opening is today.
“It was a great way for us to do a month of R&D. So we introduced new drink items and new food items, and we asked for feedback,” Stephanie Ellingwood said.
Untamed Spirits is joining a very small community of women’s sports bars in the area. Last year, Watch Me launched in Long Beach, the first in L.A. County. Both are part of a bigger movement nationally, joining the more than a dozen such bars that have opened in the last few years, spurred on by a growing interest in women’s sports.
The Ellingwoods said Jax Diener, owner of "Watch Me," has stopped by to say hello.
“ It's really nice to see how supportive the community is with the owners as well, because it is a community, not a competition,” Janie Ellingwood said.
Despite its major league interest in women’s sports, Untamed Spirits caters to all sports lovers. “We focus on women's sports, but we do play all the sports,” Stephanie Ellingwood said.
And of course all four-legged friends are welcome too. “Dogs are one of our favorite people,” Janie Ellingwood said.
Untamed Spirits
3715 Evans St. West, Los Angeles
Grand opening: Saturday, 10 a.m. to midnight
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