Progress initially awkward coming into trendy bars (7)

I believe the answer is:

inroads

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'progress' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'initially awkward coming into trendy bars' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'coming into' is an insertion indicator.
'trendy' becomes 'in'.
'bars' becomes 'rods' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The first letter of 'awkward' is 'a'.
'in'+'rods'='inrods'
'a' inserted into 'inrods' is 'INROADS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for inroads that I've seen before include "Ordains as offensives" , "advances" , "Encroachments" , "Hostile incursions" , "(Make) raids, intrusions (into)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.