Liliana Lovell

Liliana "Lil" Lovell (born September 29, 1967) is an entrepreneur, best known as the founder the Coyote Ugly Saloon and Ugly Inc. Lovell was the host of the reality TV show The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search. In the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly, she was portrayed by Maria Bello.

Liliana Lovell grew up in Westchester County, New York 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 bar tending at a cowboy bar, the Village Idiot, to make money full-time. Lovell managed the Village Idiot for three years, where she perfected her unique 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, and notorious bar owner, Tom McNeill. Lovell left to start her own bar with partner and now husband, Tony Piccirillo. They leased a failed Italian eatery across the street from the Village Idiot and opened the Coyote Ugly Saloon 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, Red Rock West, and Yogi's soon followed.

The Coyote Ugly Saloon was a popular New York City bar from 1993 to 1997. 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.

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