Liliana Lovell

Lovell grew up in Westchester County, New York[2] She graduated from New York University with a degree in psychology and communications. During college, she worked as a bartender in New York City. While working on Wall Street as an investment banking intern, she made $200 a week. After making $300 a night pouring drinks, she started bartending at a cowboy bar, the Village Idiot, to make money full-time.[3] Lovell managed the Village Idiot for three years,[4] where she developed a routine of dancing on the bar, singing, and challenging customers to drinking contests. She learned her business model "beautiful girls + booze = money" from her boss, bar owner Tom McNeill. Lovell left to start her own bar with partner and now husband Tony Piccirillo.[2] They leased a failed Italian eatery across the street from the Village Idiot and opened the Coyote Ugly Saloon[4] on January 27, 1993. Modeled after the Village Idiot, Coyote Ugly was one of the original cowboy bars in East Village. Others, like Doc Holliday's, and Yogi's, soon followed.[3]

The Coyote Ugly Saloon was a popular New York City bar from 1993 to 1997.[5] In 1997, the bar was propelled into the national spotlight when former bartender Elizabeth Gilbert wrote of her experiences in a story for Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine, called "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon." In the article, she described Lovell's idea of a Coyote bartender:

Early in my own Coyote Ugly Saloon career, I made the mistake of saying to a customer, "Here's your beer, sir." Lil overheard and shouted, "Don't ever call anyone in this place 'sir'!" So I said, "I'm terribly sorry. I meant to say, 'Here's your beer, douche bag.' " Lil and the customer laughed. And I thought, Oh, I get it, but I am a very quick study. Some bartenders were friendly but not relaxed, so they didn't last. Some bartenders were gorgeous but not sexy, so what's the point? Some bartenders laughed a lot but were not funny themselves, so that didn't work, either.[3]

She hired young women and taught them her wild routine, which included such antics as chugging alcohol, setting light to it, and then breathing fire. While some women were good at singing, others good at dancing, and others good at yelling, Lovell found that not all the women were talented in each of the three aspects, so she often paired women with complementary abilities.

In 2006, Lovell began hosting The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search, a reality TV show on Country Music Television (CMT). The premise of the show involved Lovell auditioning young women to become the next "coyote". With the help from a few of her "coyote mentors", Lovell trained women to become bartenders, dancers, and all around entertainers. The winner received $25,000 and the title of "Ultimate Coyote".[6]

In 2007, the series reappeared on CMT Canada. In this version, the series was based on teams. Lovell chose five of her best Coyotes from bars across the country. Each of those coyotes would then hold auditions at their home bars to find teammates for the competition. The teams for the competition were:

Team New York won in 2007, and were awarded $50,000. The third and final season of the show was held in 2008.

https://www.coyoteuglysaloon.com/