Located in Los Feliz, the first women’s sports bar for the city of Los Angeles has made a slam dunk with its opening.
A passion project for co-owners and wives Stephanie and Janie Ellingwood, Untamed Spirits is a space for fans of women’s sports, and it’s been a hit for the community in its first few weeks. Untamed’s opening comes almost a year after California’s first women’s sports bar opened in Long Beach – Watch Me! Sports Bar founded by Jackie “Jax” Diener and Megan “Emme” Eddy.
Both locations offer a family and pet-friendly space to enjoy games in a comfortable environment, focusing on women’s sports and showing men’s games as well.
“Why do we have to keep searching for places that aren’t going to play the sound of a game that clearly everybody wants to watch, why not do it ourselves?” said Stephanie Ellingwood.
Stephanie and partner Janie Ellingwood came up with the idea for Untamed after a brewery they frequented wouldn’t turn the sound on for a Women’s National Soccer team game that had an obvious crowd of viewers. The two turned that idea into something that represented “unapologetic freedom” for them and the fans.
“We just gathered everything that we could possibly know from all of the years we’ve been together and threw it at this bar,” said Janie.
For Watch Me!, Deiner dreamed of owning a sports bar 20 years ago but pushed it off until The Sports Bra opened, a women’s sports bar in Oregon. With the summer 2024 Olympics less than a year away, she got right to work even as people reacted with doubt. “Everyone said there’s no way you can open a bar restaurant in under a year, and I said watch me,” Deiner said.
She added that on opening day “we had people that told us they waited four hours in line” and how the community has influenced them “it proved to us we were filling a void” and “we built the space, but the community will shape us.”
Janie and Stephanie also touched on the community they’d built with their bar. “The clientele just ends up talking to each other as if they’re already friends.” said Janie. “They come in with so much love saying the neighborhood needs this… people say this place is a vibe.”
Stephanie is optimistic about what these bars represent for women’s sports viewership. “You see the numbers, clearly people want to watch” and remarking “imagine if the accessibility was easier… how many more people would be watching.”
