LAKEVIEW — A women’s sports bar is coming to Clark Street just a few blocks from Wrigley Field, aiming to flip the script on what a sports bar in Chicago’s most sports-saturated neighborhood looks like.
Led by founder and CEO Clarissa Flores — a former Northwestern University basketball player with deep roots in Chicago’s hospitality scene — Level Sporting Club, 3343 N. Clark St., will put women’s sports front and center.
“Women’s sports will be the default,” Flores said. “For decades, women’s sports have been treated as secondary, something you have to ask for. We’re challenging that norm and making it the priority.”
Flores, a Chicago native and Whitney Young High School alumna, played basketball at Northwestern before competing overseas and for the Puerto Rican national team. After her playing career, she built a résumé in large-scale hospitality, opening Concord Hall — formerly V LIVE — in Logan Square and serving as director of operations for Lodge Management Group and Tao Chicago.
Despite years of success in nightlife and hospitality, Level Sporting Club is the most personal project Flores has taken on, she said.
“My whole life and career are indebted to the game,” she said. “When I saw what was happening with women’s sports — the momentum, the record-breaking attendance, the investment — I knew I wouldn’t be doing the game justice if I didn’t build something like this.”
Level Sporting Club describes itself as “Chicago’s home for women’s sports,” blending high-energy game-day culture with craft cocktails, elevated bar food and community-focused programs.
While the bar will still show Chicago’s men’s teams, women’s athletics will take center stage.
“We’re a block and a half from Wrigley Field,” Flores said. ‘We’ll have the big games on here, but the focus will be on women’s sports.”
Level Sporting Club CEO Clarissa Flores speaks to a reporter at 3343 N Clark Ave. on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. Credit: Jeremy Battle/Block Club Chicago
The ownership and investor group was assembled intentionally, Flores said. It is made up largely of former athletes and women with deep ties to sports.
That team includes Jennifer King, the first Black woman to hold a full-time NFL assistant coaching position; Ashleen Bracey, head coach of UIC’s women’s basketball team; retired professional basketball player Janae Smith; and several former collegiate athletes who now work in finance, real estate and business leadership.
“Athletes just get it done,” Flores said. “We work as teams. Every role matters. That mentality shapes how this place is being built.”
The kitchen will be led by Amanda Barnes, executive chef at Le Colonial in the Gold Coast, with a menu focused on elevated bar fare. Upstairs, the main bar will serve as a high-energy gathering space for games, DJs and events. Downstairs, a candlelit lounge called Next Level will operate on weekends as a late-night cocktail destination.
Renovations take place at Level Sporting Club, soon to open at 3343 N Clark Ave. on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. Credit: Jeremy Battle/Block Club Chicago
Level’s opening comes as women’s sports bars are gaining traction in Chicago. Babe’s Sports Bar opened this fall in Logan Square, drawing big crowds and showing demand for spaces where women’s sports are the main attraction.
“This is a market that’s been underserved,” Flores said. “When you give women’s sports access and visibility, the demand is there.”
The Clark Street opening also adds to signs of recovery along a stretch of Lakeview that has been hit hard by the pandemic and years of disruption from the CTA’s Red and Purple Line Modernization project. Several longtime businesses closed near Clark and Roscoe during construction, but restaurants, cafes and bars have begun filling in over the past year.
Flores said choosing Clark Street felt intentional — not just for its proximity to Wrigleyville, but for what it represents.
“Sports bars are institutions in this city,” she said. “To open something new, something inclusive, something that reflects where sports culture is going — that matters.”
Level Sporting Club is expected to open in late April or early May, with renovations underway. Looking ahead, Flores said she’s excited to see the community that forms inside — especially with the WNBA All-Star Game coming to Chicago in 2026.
“To finally do something that’s mine, and to see the support already coming in, it’s overwhelming in the best way,” she said. “This is about giving women’s sports the space they’ve always deserved.”
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