Real Vegas Magazine | Adam Vander Heyden, the DUI Doctor | Leading Lawyers of Las Vegas

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Coyote Ugly Saloon Has Been Dubbed the Most Famous Bar on the Planet and I Had the Pleasure of Working There

5 Former

Coyote Ugly Girls Then and now!

I

f 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 10am. 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

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and enjoyed my time and comradery with the other Coyote girls. I enjoyed watching the choregraphed 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.

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