How Serena Williams’ husband is helping to turn a women’s sport bar into a chain

If you combine a chef who loves basketball, Serena Williams’s husband, and women’s sports, what do you get? A unique chain of sports bars.

But before looking ahead, let’s go back a few years.

In 2018, Jenny Nguyen, the chef mentioned earlier, came up with the idea of a bar exclusively showing women’s sports. She and some friends had to watch a college basketball final on a small TV in the corner of a bar in Portland, Oregon with no sound, after requesting the staff to change the channel to the women’s game.

The experience was not ideal, sparking conversations about a new type of sports bar.

It took four years for Nguyen to bring the concept to life, facing challenges such as the pandemic and fundraising. Banks were hesitant to provide loans due to the high risk of the untested idea. Instead, she used her own savings, support from family and friends, and a Kickstarter campaign to open The Sports Bra in April 2022.

Ngyuen explains the name saying, “One simple change can make all the difference, like switching channels or changing two letters in ‘sports bar’. It was the first thing that came to mind and it really stuck.”

Despite initial doubts about its success, the bar became popular quickly. In the first few months, there was a line outside at opening time, with customers willing to wait for a seat among the 40 inside, watching live sports on five TVs and admiring the sports memorabilia on the walls. Nguyen is firm about no reservations and has turned down requests from teams and athletes. Some well-known figures have even waited in line to enter, with Portland Thorns games in the National Women’s Soccer League being a popular choice among patrons.

This high demand has led the bar to generate $1 million in revenue each year.