When Darci Lien started work at Wetlands more than five years ago, being a sports bar was more of a target than a reality.

“I don’t know that when I first started here I would have called it a ‘sports bar,’” says Lien, the bar’s general manager, when EW called to say her establishment, at 922 Garfield Street, had come in at the top of our readers’ list. “That’s so surreal!”

It was also no accident, she says. “I decided to change the culture here three years ago. We’ve really homed in on making sure we have sports on all the time — and getting the right people in the door.”