Atlanta Scores Its First Women's Sports Bar—And The Name Is Dolly Inspired

"When your single in your 30s, you just name things after your cat," says Chelsea Fishman, owner of the newly opened women's sports bar Jolene Jolene in Atlanta, Georgia. It helps that she named her cat after one of the most beloved Dolly Parton songs of all time.

It's also an extremely fitting name for a bar focused on women's sports, which is such a rarity that Jolene Jolene is actually the first in the city, and we would venture to say in the South as well. As of July 4, Fishman, who had started the concept as roving pop-ups, has found a semi-permanent residency space in Pullman Yards on the east side of the city.

As an avid women's sports fan, Fishman had longed for a place like Jolene Jolene, and when she was laid off her marketing job last year, decided to make her dreams a reality. In fact, the concept literally came to her in her sleep.

"The name came to me in the middle of the night, and I just woke up and I was like, 'Jolene Jolene, that's the name of a bar,'" she says.

A restaurant rookie, she did what most of us might do, she started doing some internet research.

"I searched: how to start a business," she laughs. But she wasn't entirely without experience, at least in the world of women's sports. "My last job was with a women's athletic apparel company," she says. "I just fell in love with [women's sports] and I knew I wanted to stay in that space for the rest of my life, [but] I didn't exactly know what that would look like."

It turns out it looks like a party. Jolene Jolene inhabits Brick and Mortar, a chef incubator space inside Pullman Yards. Now it's outfitted with five flat-screens for watching everything from the Atlanta Dream to the season finale of Love Island. (And yes, men's games sometimes, too.)

The menu still honors the Asian fusion that Brick and Mortar is known for, but Fishman worked with the team to create themed bites, including wings aptly named for legendary Seattle Storm WNBA player Sue Bird, and a "Girl Dinner" sharable charcuterie board.

"People are truly hungry for a safe, fun, welcoming space to watch women's sports because it doesn't exist," Fishman says. "And we have what feels like an unlimited amount of women's sports fans in the city. People have really rallied behind Jolene Jolene."

Using the residency as launching point, Fishman hopes to turn the concept into its own brick-and-mortar, challenging long-held notions that there isn't a market for women's sports fans, as well as the negative commenters who say things like "women don't even watch women's sports."

Social media is what Fishman actually credits for a lot of the growing interest in women's teams over the years. Jolene Jolene takes the conversation offline, and invites everyone to join, no matter what level of sports fan you are. But there is one person she's really hoping stops by.

"I've been a Dolly fan forever; my go-to karaoke song is 9 to 5. The whole point of the bar is to get Dolly to come," she jokes. "Nothing else matters."

Read the original article on Southern Living