5 EYEWITNESS NEWS got a sneak peek on Wednesday inside what will soon be the first bar and restaurant in Minnesota dedicated to showing women’s sports.

A Bar of Their Own, located in the former Tracy’s Saloon on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis, is set to open on March 1, said owner Jillian Hiscock.

On Wednesday evening Hiscock hosted her first event, a kick-off for PWHL Minnesota at The Women’s Club in Minneapolis. She said she couldn’t miss out on the historic puck drop and the chance to set the stage for her bar to be the place to go for any and all women’s sports.

Hiscock is a sports enthusiast and Minnesota-born athlete herself.

“I was a three-sport athlete in high school, and I still play kickball and softball, and a bunch of old lady sports,” she laughed, sitting down for an interview inside A Bar of Their Own earlier in the day.

In some ways, female empowerment in the bar started with the previous owners who “used to sponsor a bunch of women’s hockey teams and broomball teams,” Hiscock said, adding, that she didn’t know that when she initially discovered the space to open A Bar of Their Own.

“For so much of history, women’s sports and women’s sports fandom has been an afterthought,” she said, speaking to why she decided to begin “the biggest project [she’s] ever taken on.”

“And yeah, I’m getting haters online that say, ‘Nobody’s going to come.’ ‘You’re going to have as many people in the bar as you do at a women’s sports game.’ And to me, I’m like, ‘Bring it on,'” she continued.

The bar, which was still under construction on Wednesday, leaves some to the imagination. Picture 12 65-inch TVs, Hiscock said, and a Hall of Fame dedicated to any and all women’s sports.

“High school, club, anything. You name it,” she said.

It’s a first of its kind, not just in Minnesota, but for the entire Midwest, according to Hiscock.

“We want this to be a place that if somebody really wants to watch their niece in roller derby, ‘Come on in.’ We’ll get it on the TV,” she said. “We want that to be the norm and be more of the norm. And for me, it’s also really important for young girls and boys to see women’s athletes on that stage.”

There are just three other bars like hers across the country, a community she’s now an active part of, Hiscock said. The first — The Sports Bra — opened in Portland, Oregon as recently as 2022.

A Bar of Their Own will be family and kid-friendly, she said.