Coyote Ugly Saloon Has Been Dubbed the Most Famous Bar on the Planet
5 Former Coyote Ugly Girls Then and Now!
If you are from or have been in Las Vegas for any length of time, you’ve likely either been to Coyote Ugly at the New York, New York Casino or at least have heard of it. Well, it was in about 2005 when I called up my stepfather who raised me, having a “Carrie” from Sex in the City moment, and asking him as a single mother how I could make some real money. Being that I was a single mother of 2 young daughters and making peanuts for a living at that time, working at a National regional magazine, I recall my stepfather earnestly asking me, “Well, how has it been working for your longtime absentee biological Father at his magazine company?” My reply was, well he works me like a dog, and I can hardly pay my rent. I’m always stressed to the max and have literally little to no quality of life and/or time with my young daughters. It’s like a rat race, I continued… and I’m pretty sure he’s broken every labor law in the book. He does not compensate me well at all and he literally treats me like I’m his slave. He even micromanages my break periods. I continued, “Dad, I’ve lost a lot of weight from the stress, and working for him makes me a nervous wreck!” I just want to be able to provide a nice lifestyle, make some real money, and have time to spend with my daughters.” He told me since your bio-father fired you so he could keep (his then) 4th wife on payroll, that I should go down to the Pure Management Corporate Office and meet with a guy by the name of Jeff the following Monday at 10 am. I did just that and was hired to work at Coyote Ugly on the spot. I was instructed to go get my Sheriff’s, Health, and TAM cards and that as soon as I had those, I would start my new position. My stepdad was a silent investor so he assured me I would be taken care of. I completed the tasks at hand eagerly and started at Coyote the following week. The ladies were nice, the job was fun, and I was never worked more than 8 hours in a shift. Heck, I even had support and multiple bar-backs that were happy to do the heavy lifting! I was very grateful and became pretty close friends with those guys as well. I felt like I was in Heaven! Furthermore, I learned that I would have culinary benefits (that were really good insurance benefits) for my daughters and myself. This was something I was promised by my former domineering employer, but never came to fruition, so I was very thankful and enjoyed my time and comradery with the other Coyote girls. I enjoyed watching the choreographed dances when the ladies would do their practices inside the bar before the saloon would open in the evening. I normally would be getting off as the line would start to wrap around the building, the bouncers would arrive and I’d make my way home to spend my evenings with my wonderful daughters every night, also affording me my evenings and private time to share with them, help them with their homework, make them dinner, watch some TV, and put them to bed. I was at Coyote from about 2005-late 2006/early 2007 and moved on to continue my career as a Lead Bartender at the Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas Strip.
Recently, I was in contact with one of the Former Coyote Ugly girls during the pandemic and shut down and we were chatting with one another about a few things, catching up and learning what one another was doing now and I was inspired to run an article on the Former Coyote Ugly Girls… Then and now. Here are 5 of us ladies and we hope you enjoy reading about the journeys and maybe even a Meet & Greet with them at an upcoming event.
Candice was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, and is a mother, child of a large family of 8, and a grandmother. She spent most of her life being a caretaker for children, animals, and family. She went into food and beverage and hospitality around 2005. She was hired as a cashier and daquiri bartender at Coyote Ugly, in which her family had vested interest and owned part of while it was under the PureManagement corporate umbrella. She thoroughly enjoyed her tenure while bartending and not only met some great women but her favorite boss of all time, who ended up leaving Coyote and went over to a new restaurant concept and venture of her family’s, which was Trader Vic’s and Halo Bar. At the time of her resignation at Coyote Ugly; another former boss told her she was the 1st Coyote he ever heard of actually turning in a formal, signed 2-week notice recognition letter. Although Candice was an avid lover of dancing, she never danced on the bar based on her conservative opinion that since she had already given birth to 2 daughters at that time, she not only did not want to bare midriff or dance for purposes of entertaining others. “I love to dance, but I love to dance as an escape and not for anyone watching. I do admire the strong women who enjoy entertaining, being in the limelight is just simply not my thing.” Stated Candice when asked.
Candice went back to the print magazine media sector that she left to bartend at Coyote for in 2005, that she had been doing from about 2002-2005. She returned to print magazines and has been in that professional arena ever since. She now publishes this magazine, Real Vegas, and was inspired to catch up with other Coyote Ugly gals and see what they’re doing now. Personally, Candice enjoys spending time with her huge extended and immediate family, and is now a grandmother, mother of 2 grown daughters, and has been in a long-term relationship for almost 7 years.
Sarah Lyn started working at Coyote Ugly at the age of 21 and bartended from 2006-2010. At the time she was very shy and did not dance on the bar; she focused on serving drinks, interacting with guests, and enjoy some of her favorite country songs while doing so.
She left Coyote at 25 to go back to school for cosmetology. She worked in skincare and the beauty industry for several years and soon crossed over to the medical side of skincare. She currently works as a medical assistant at Lakes Dermatology where she assists in everything from cosmetic procedures to MOHS (cancer) surgeries.
She’s very grateful for her time at Coyote Ugly and the many amazing people she met while working there. For the newbies stepping into Coyote Ugly for the first time she still advises not ordering water and tipping your fabulous badass bartenders.
Tiffany was born and raised in Alabama. She started her classic dance training at a very young age and was privileged to train at Gus Giordano’s Studio in Chicago, Broadway Dance Center in New York; afterwhich she moved to Los Angeles under scholarship at Tremaine DanceStudio. She was very fortunate to perform with many different amazing artists both on screen and onstage: U2, Kidd Rock, Black Eyed Peas, Usher, Outkast, Back Street Boys, No Doubt, Limp Bizkit, Eminem, Nelly, Michael Caine, Alice Cooper, Hans Klock, Siegfried and Roy, and many more. She has toured Europe with ‘Grease the Musical’, as well as the States with Hoku Ho and 98 Degrees.
Tiffany shifted into becoming a choreographer and director with projects like “Britney Spears: Femme Fatal Tour”, ‘Sir Rosevelt: Share the Code Concert”, ‘Farm Club’ on USA Network, ‘Storm’ at Mandalay Bay,‘James Bond: PlayStation Game’ for EA Sports, ‘Black Kat: PlayStationGame’ for Westwood Studios, ‘Life is Beautiful with Walk the Moon’, ‘MissUSA’, ‘Coyote Ugly and Centrifuge’, and many corporate events for various Las Vegas Casinos. Currently, Tiffany resides in Las Vegas where she runs her own business, The Unspoken Studio, a teacher of various styles of dance for Nevada Ballet, Rock Dance Center, a teacher, and co-director for Joffrey Cirque Arts, and as the Dance Coach for MJ One, with quest work on O and Mystere with Cirque du Soleil.
Tiffany started her Coyote career as a cocktail server/dancer. She then worked very hard to become an Entertainment Bartender. Tiffany was with Coyote Ugly for 10 years before she left to join the “circus”.
Sandra moved to Las Vegas in 2003, from California. She worked at the Wynn Casino as a Cocktail Server and 2 years later she landed at Coyote Ugly as Cock-tail Server/ Daiquiri Girl and was employed there for3 years. Sandra has a 10-year history in the service and hospitality industry. She went on to have her 1st son in 2009. Sandra now works for herself with RetailIndustrial Supplies.
Melissa (then Cerrito, now Kovacovich) was one of the daiquiri bartenders for most of her time at Coyote Ugly. She would also bartend inside the club on occasion and do the beer tub. Oftentimes she would be asked to help out in the club and dance the bar when they needed her to. Fast forward 10 years… She is now a proud stay-at-home mom to her 2 beautiful boys (9 and 5) and going on her 10th year of marriage to a wonderful man, her husband is a firefighter! Melissa (Cerrito as we used to call her) keeps in contact with a few of the girls from Coyote who all have kids now as well. Coyote was a huge part of her life, and it gave her some long-lasting friendships that she treasures still to this day!
