Women's sports fans will have a new place to hang out with opening of Level Sporting Club

It’s been nearly 25 years since Clarissa Flores was a standout basketball player at Northwestern University.

Since then, the Chicago native has been building a lengthy resume in the hospitality industry. And since 2022, she's been the director of operations at Tao Nightclub.

But she’s going back to her roots with a goal of "leveling the playing field," by prioritizing women’s sports with the launch of Level Sporting Club.

"We're a Chicago sports bar where women's sports takes center stage,” Flores said. “Just as we would walk into any regular Chicago sports bar and men’s sports is a priority ... that's going to be flipped here."

The 5,632-square-foot space at 3343 N. Clark St. is expected to open at the end of April. The bar will be near the heart of sports bars crowding around Wrigley Field.

On Monday, Flores got the keys to her new space, which was previously home to the seafood boil restaurant Lowcountry. Remnants of the restaurant are everywhere — menu items are still etched into a chalkboard and Lowcountry’s checkered tables and chairs remain.

But Flores, with a team of six female investors, is ready to start building out Level Sporting Club.

It was a few years ago when Flores, 46, got the idea to open a bar dedicated to women’s sports.

“Everything I've done in hospitality has ... always been for the general market,” Flores said. “I wanted to do what I love and am passionate about but also do it for the community I love, like women's sports.”

She noticed other bars focusing on women's sports were opening on the West Coast.

The company gauged interest for their concept through pop-up events at bars like She-nannigans in Gold Coast. But it wasn’t until last year that her plans took off. Within a couple of months, she had a group of influential investors.

“People do typically think a bar and restaurant is high risk but because of my experience of what I've done in this sphere, a lot of people wanted to invest in what I was working on,” she said.

Investors include Jennifer King, the first Black woman to become a full-time assistant coach in the NFL; University of Illinois Chicago head women’s basketball coach Ashleen Bracey; retired professional basketball player Janae Smith; former University of Chicago soccer player Patricia Dull; former Illinois State University basketball player Tiffany Hudson and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology basketball player Trinity Gao.

Flores said in the last few years, more people have been supporting women’s sports than any other time. Though while at Whitney Young High School, a crowd of thousands came to watch her play the team's 1997 championship game.

“The interest has always been there,” she said. “Now all the media and everyone is starting to support it.”

Level Sporting Club will soon join other bars that focus on showing women's sports, such as Babes in Logan Square, which opened in 2025, and Edgewater's Whiskey Tavern Girl that opened in 2022.

“I've been to Babes. I go there to support,” she said. “So to me, that's not competition. For me, [if] I had another Babes open up across the street, that would be amazing.”

Flores found Level Sporting Club's Lake View space — in the heart of an “entertainment corridor,” she said — towards the end of 2025.

“I looked around on this first floor, and in my head, I already knew. I was like, ‘This is it,’” she said.

The space can seat 188 people. The upstairs will have 10 TVs and a “homey” vintage aesthetic, she said. Downstairs will feature several more TVs and be designed to give a lounge vibe. There's also plans to host events, including a piano singalong night.

"Anyone that supports women's sports [is welcome]. It doesn't matter, male or female,” she said. “Do you support women's sports? We want you in here."

Flores said she plans to show all Chicago sports during the season, even though women's sports will take center stage.

Chicago chef Amanda Barnes is also crafting the menu, including an item dubbed “shewich,” a play on the “manwich.”

Flores is also the cofounder of Lesbian Social Club, which organizes queer events at entertainment venues like Tao.

The River North resident is no stranger to media attention, even outside her star status as a basketball player

In 2009, Flores' then-boyfriend Chris Kelly committed suicide. Kelly was a top fundraiser and confidant of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on political corruption charges in 2011 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He served eight years before Trump cut short his term in 2020 then pardoned him last year.

“Chicago is a cutthroat city,” she said. “Politically, it's a cutthroat city. The restaurant industry in Chicago is a cutthroat city. So it prepared me in so many ways. I know what to expect in the city now, but I've had great unbelievable supporters.”

Flores has received support not just from investors but other industry heavy hitters like Nadia Rawlinson, co-owner of the Chicago Sky. 

“Everyone wants to support this movement and that's the most important thing," Flores said. "Because without the infrastructure and without the support, the movement will die. So I'm just trying to build that so we can keep the momentum going.”