Ep. #24 The Story Behind "The Sports Bra" - a Women's Sports Bar, ft. Jenny Nguyen

In Ep. #24, Caroline sits down with Jenny Nguyen, the Owner of The Sports Bra - a women's sports bar in Portland, OR. In this episode, hear Jenny tell the full story behind the creation of the world's first & only sports bar that is fully dedicated to showing women's sports. The idea for The Sports Bar started in April 2018, when Nguyen and about a dozen of her friends wanted to watch the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament championship game between Notre Dame and Mississippi State at a local sports bar. They grabbed a few tables and slid them together, and got the server to switch one of the televisions to the big game for them. They ordered food and drinks and proceeded to watch what would be one of the best games in NCAA history. When it was all over, they realized they had watched the whole thing on a tiny TV in the corner of the bar with no sound on.Fast forward to 2020, when Nguyen had been running her parents’ family business for a couple years, having left her position as a chef. Between the pandemic and the racial justice movement, the world was being turned on its head. It was a time of change. She had always felt a bit lost since leaving the kitchen but didn’t know what lay ahead. She felt she needed to do something more.Social movements were pressing harder and further, people were learning and unlearning, and women’s sports were pushing forward and through. Nguyen felt that there was so much distress and upheaval in 2020, but also so much inspiration and reason to fight. Finally, she saw her place in the struggle and how she could do something meaningful. The idea of The Sports Bra was born.