A bar dedicated primarily to celebrating women's professional and collegiate sports, which also doubles as the first lesbian bar to open in the Castro in decades, makes its debut on Wednesday.
After a few construction and city-permitting delays that caused them to miss the opening of the Golden State Valkyries season, Rikki's is having its grand opening on Wednesday, June 11, just in time for Pride Month. The bar and restaurant at 2223 Market Street fills the space left vacant last year with the closing Copas — and it happens to be just a few doors down from 12-year-old gay sports bar Hi Tops.
As we first learned in January, Rikki's is named in honor of late San Francisco bar owner, activist and softball enthusiast Rikki Streicher, who died in 1994. She was the owner of onetime lesbian bars Maud's, in Cole Valley, and Amelia's, now the Valencia Room. The Eureka Valley baseball diamond also bears Streicher's name.
Co-owners Danielle Thoe and Sara Yergovich, who met while playing in the queer soccer club the San Francisco Spikes, say they wanted to open an inclusive space where everyone is welcome. And, as Thoe tells Hoodline, women's sports will dominate, but sports fans will be able to catch Warriors, 49ers, and Giants games on the bars 15 TVs as well.
"We want to prioritize women's sports, but not exclusively show them," Thoe says.
The Castro hasn't seen a dedicated lesbian bar since the Cafe San Marcos closed in the 1990s, and other women's bars around the city like the Lexington Club have now become distant memories.
But, 2023 saw the opening of Mother on 16th Street in the Mission District, and that queer-centric, lesbian-owned spot landed on Bon Appetit's list of Best New Bars in the country in 2024.
The food menu at Rikki's, with items mostly priced under $20, was created by JD Voss, former chef-owner of SoMa gastropub Jamber. It features bar-friendly fare as well as some healthful, unusual-for-a-bar items like a dish of roasted and spiced carrots with feta dip, and a dish of sugar snap peas with either white bean dip or burrata. For vegans and vegetarians, there's also a quinoa salad with citrus and burrata, and a beet-based veggie burger.
Among the more standard bar/pub fare is a smashburger, a cornflake-crusted hot chicken sandwich, duck fat confit chicken wings with either Buffalo sauce or a dry rub, and beer-battered fish and chips. There is also a bacon-wrapped bison meatloaf served with mashed potatoes and brown-butter carrots.
The drink menu includes classics like an Old Fashioned, a Cosmopolitan, and a Tripple Espresso Martini, and signature offerings like The Queen Is King (dedicated to tennis legend Billie Jean King), featuring vodka or gin, blue spirulina, white peach, lemon and soda.
There are also six beers on tap featuring local brewers, including woman-owned Local Brewing Co's Pride-themed Gay Crush. And several low-ABV and N/A cocktails available as well.
Mayor Daniel Lurie is expected to come bless the opening at a press event Tuesday, and passersby may have seen the place come alive with some friends-and-family events over the last weekend.
On Wednesday, WBNA fans can expect to see games on the screens at Rikki's being played by the LA Sparks and Las Vegas Aces, as well as the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm, both at 7 pm PT. And regular hours at Rikki's will be 3:30 pm to 10 pm on weekdays, and 3:30 pm to midnight on weekends.
See more photos and the menus below.
