This year’s Pride Month in San Francisco is seeing a new women’s sports bar open in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood. Meanwhile, two queer watering holes in other parts of town have seen ownership changes.
Rikki’s, a women’s sports bar, had its ribbon cutting Tuesday with Mayor Daniel Lurie attending the ceremony. It officially opened Wednesday, June 11. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, queer women Sara Yergovich and Danielle Thoe, business partners and friends, have spent the last several months working to open Rikki’s at 2223 Market Street, the former location of Copas, which closed in 2024.
The bar is named for Elizabeth “Rikki” Streicher, the late longtime lesbian activist, bar owner, and Federation of Gay Games co-founder. It is a few doors down from the gay-owned sports bar Hi-Tops at 2247 Market Street.
“There’s no better time to open a women’s sports bar than right now.” Yergovich, who also identifies as lesbian, said at the June 10 news conference. The Golden State Valkyries just started playing in the WNBA this season. Bay Football Club in the National Women's Soccer League began play last season.
Yergovich said the idea for the bar came after having tried, with mixed success, to watch professional women’s sports elsewhere.
“It should not be this hard to watch women’s sports, so Danielle and I thought, why don’t we do something about it? … Now, every day can be a watch party at Rikki’s,” she said.
The menu includes cocktails crafted by Christian “Suzu” Suzuki, who, as general manager at the Mission district bar Wildhawk, competed in Netflix’s “Drink Masters” some years ago.
Entree dishes are between $16 and $20 and include a smash burger, fish and chips, and meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes.
Lurie said he showed up to thank Yergovich and Thoe “on behalf of a grateful city.”
He added, “You can expect to see me here watching women’s sports. Sports bring us together. They unite us.”
Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who as District 8 supervisor represents the Castro on the board, gave the pair a certificate. He expressed optimism and gratitude for a greater lesbian presence in the Castro.
“It is wonderful to have a bar opening in a neighborhood that, I think we all know, is everybody’s queer neighborhood, but not everybody queer always feels totally welcome here and so having an explicitly women’s sports bar is so great,” Mandelman said. “I want to congratulate the visionaries who made this happen.”
Thoe thanked Mandelman and the city’s Office of Small Business for help “in navigating city bureaucracy and helping us get open in just over six months’ time from when we signed the lease.” The first time business owners, she said, “learned a lot throughout this process.”
There are only a handful of bars catering to queer women in the city, all in or near the Mission district. The Castro hasn't seen a lesbian-themed bar in decades.
Streicher owned the lesbian bars Maud's in the Cole Valley neighborhood from 1966 to 1989 and Amelia's in the Mission district from 1978 to 1991. Maud's and Amelia's sponsored the first women's teams in the San Francisco Gay Softball League. A co-founder of the Gay Games, Streicher died of cancer in 1994. The athletic field at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center in the Castro is named after her.
Ownership changes
Former Castro bar the Cafe San Marcos at 2369 Market Street had billed itself as a lesbian club for a time in the 1980s and 1990s until it saw its clientele become predominantly male and eventually became known simply as The Cafe. This spring, Louis Caputo and Jeffrey Grannis, a married couple who both worked at the venue, took over its ownership on April 1. It’s currently open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and the new owners are looking toward organizing new events, Hoodline reported, adding that though there will be some upgrades, the club had a pretty extensive remodel in 2019, just before the COVID pandemic.
Before the Castro came to the fore, Polk Gulch was a major hub of San Francisco’s LGBTQ nightlife. Now, the only bar that remains there is The Cinch Saloon, at 1723 Polk Street.
Scott Taylor, a gay man, will be taking over from Robby Morgenstein, who became The Cinch’s sole owner after the 2023 death of Bob Thornton. Morgenstein found the business too much to maintain by himself, according to a news release.
Asked when his ownership officially starts, Taylor told the B.A.R. that “there’s no simple answer to that because we’re in the escrow process right now,” which takes 45-90 days.
For his part, Taylor looks forward to his new role.
“I’m very excited,” Taylor told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. “The bar really meant a lot to me throughout my history in San Francisco. I helped out working there over the years … and lived with several bartenders. I took my partner on our first date there, as cheesy as that is.”
Drag icon Juanita MORE! vouched for Taylor. MORE! was introduced to the Cinch by venturing down Nob Hill to Polk Street from her first San Francisco apartment in 1982.
“The Cinch is where I felt comfortable and began making many new friends (sometimes at the urinal),” MORE! stated. “Years later, as Empress of the Imperial Council of San Francisco, I attended many events with my crown on my head. It is one of the very few queer bars left in my neighborhood. I am so proud of Scott Taylor for standing up and securing the bar's future. I will be by his side to ensure it succeeds and lives on for a hundred years.”
Across town, Trax, at 1437 Haight Street, likewise the last LGBTQ bar in its neighborhood, is going to be reopening as Mary’s on Haight. Maria Haught, a straight ally who is one of four owners, told the B.A.R. that Trax closed at the end of May, and the new owners hope to have Mary’s up and running by Pride weekend June 28-29.
“The vibe of the bar will be the same – making sure that we lean into the gay history of the bar,” Haught stated to the B.A.R. “Other than that, we are making a few small cosmetic changes: some paint, flooring, perhaps some new light fixtures.”
The B.A.R. asked Haught why the previous owner, Mark Wilson, decided to sell. Haught forwarded a reporter’s information to him but he has not reached out as of press time. (Wilson, who also operates the bar 440 Castro, told SFGate it was time to move on.)
Aindréas O’Donnell, who is gay and another of the four co-owners, said the new name is a nod to his mother.
“Renaming the bar Mary’s is both deeply personal and joyfully communal,” stated O’Donnell. “It honors my mother – whose strength and love helped shape who I am – and it nods to the historical use of ‘Mary’ as a term of affection and kinship among gay men.”
When the bar reopens, there will be “events planned to celebrate the legacy of Trax and the rebirth of the space under its new name,” according to a news release.
“This bar has always been more than a place to grab a drink – it’s been a safe haven, a front-row seat to history, and a home,” Haught stated. “Our goal is to preserve what makes this space special while inviting in new energy, new faces, and new memories. We’re building on history, not rewriting it.”
