On Tuesday evening, a crowd of women and men, but mostly women, in jerseys and hoodies emboldened with “Golden State Valkyries” and “Bay FC” chattered excitedly with one another, forming a long line down Market Street in the Castro.
“Can you believe it’s finally here?!” cried one woman, overcome with excitement as she was ushered in through the front door to Rikki’s at 2223 Market St., San Francisco’s first women’s sports bar, during its soft launch on Tuesday for donors and supporters.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, joined by Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, had just left. Before the crowds of women’s sports fans arrived, Lurie and Rikki’s co-founders, Danielle Thoe and Sara Yergovich, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the women’s sports bar, named after Rikki Streicher, the late community activist and owner of many former queer and lesbian bars throughout the city.
“I love women’s sports!” said Lurie, to an audience of Thoe, Yergovich, Brady Stewart, the CEO of Bay FC, and Kimberly Veale, who does marketing and communications for the Golden State Valkyries, which began its first season at the Chase Center last month. Lurie commemorated the opening by flying a Valkyries flag at City Hall.
Lurie looked on as Mandelman, whose jurisdiction includes the Castro, applauded the opening of a queer, woman-owned business in the neighborhood, and awarded Thoe and Yergovich with a “Certificate of Honor.”
“We haven’t always been welcoming to everyone in the [Castro],” said Mandelman, remarking upon the large number of bars owned by gay men in the LGBTQ friendly neighborhood. Currently, only one bar the Castro, The Lobby Bar, is owned by a queer woman, Grace Huntley.
“There is space in the Castro for Rikki’s,” said Yergovich, to applause, “This is a space where everyone is welcome to celebrate women’s sports.”
Rosemary Gardner, the director of community programs for the SF LGBT Center, said that she hopes Rikki’s will be a place where all communities can feel “safe, affirmed, and relaxed.”
Rikki’s walls are lined with photos of local women’s sports history, framed jerseys, and banners, one reading, “Do Right And Fear No Man,” and another, “You Belong Here,” alongside numerous screens to watch the game.
At the entrance to a back room, where Rikki’s founders hope to hold private events, and future gatherings, a black and white photo of Rikki Streicher towers over the door. Next to her image, a plaque reads that this bar was inspired by the LGBTQ activist.
For Nancy Dito, 77, it’s heartwarming to see Streicher plastered on the wall, and her name on the front-entrance sign. As a member of the Warrior Girls Basketball League, a predecessor to the WNBA, Dito was was a regular in the women’s sports scene of 1970s San Francisco. She and others helped to name Rikki Streicher Field in Eureka Valley in 1996, shortly after the activist and founder of the “Gay Games” died.
“We used to have skirts!” exclaimed Dito, pointing to photos she had brought of her and her old team, jumping to dunk a ball in a hoop.
Though Dito said that a bar dedicated to not only women’s sports, but her old friend, was incredible, she noted that there used to be more safe spaces for women to gather, but “they all disappeared.”
Maud’s, Amelia’s, and multiple other queer bars founded by Streicher shut their doors decades ago, the last in 1991.
Dozens of women’s sports fans, waiting eagerly outside, began to file into the bar, some donning the name of their own sports team.
“I am so stoked,” said Manisha, who plays for Oakland’s Bay Area Falcons, an Ultimate Frisbee team, who hopes to one day see her team on the screen. “This is an untapped market. It always has been.”
Supporters packed the bar, ordering cocktails — one named the “Ballhalla,” a purple-tinged drink named after the Valkyries — plates of fries and burgers, and many watching the screen. The Valkyries’ highlights flickered on the TVs.
“It feels amazing,” said Thoe, who held watch parties with Yergovich for months to promote Rikki’s and fundraise for their opening. Now, said Thoe, at the mic, “Every day can be a watch party at Rikki’s.”
“I love women’s sports!” said Lurie, unprompted.