Coyote of the Month Coyote of the Month

Laken has earned her boots in the Coyote fam over the last 6 months of her time here with us. She’s a hard worker and a great team player. Her moves on and off the bar know how to get the crowd going! Not to mention her stellar Coyote TikToks that have everyone checking in to see her latest bar adventure.

Hometown: Imlay City, MI

What’s the most fun about your job at Coyote Ugly?
The Coyote family we’ve built here is absolutely everything to me. Our energies colliding and bouncing off each other behind the bar makes for such a fun night and that’s so important, not only for us but for the party we’re throwing every night at our bar.

What makes you a good Coyote?
Every Coyote brings something different and unique to the table — that’s so special. It’s my favorite thing about the bar. When I first started, I thought I had to create this loud, riotous, hell-raising party-animal persona and essentially “fake it till you make it.” What I realized when I just couldn’t fake it as that person anymore was that everyone loved me for me. They wanted my silly, weird self that trips behind the bar and fails miserably at making half-court shots of empty PBR cans into the trash bin. I’m actually a very introverted person. I’ll be up on the bar actively trying to get women up to dance with me and they’ll laugh and shy away and say “no way I’m too shy” and I’ll say while waving them up frantically “girl I’m shy too let’s go!” They never believe me, but that interaction — that connection with them that makes them realize this is an environment where they can truly let go and be themself and have fun in — that’s what gets them up on the bar. I can be crazy and have Nora shoot me with the water gun as I power slide into her as “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard plays on full blast — that’ll get women to come get wild with me easily, but the ones that are like me and just need that feeling of belonging or connection, I’m absolutely right there ready to get them ready to have the time of their lives.

How long have you been a bartender?
Coyote Ugly is my first bartending job! I’ve been bartending for 6 months.

What do you like to do on your off time?
You’ll find me on my mission to eat at every place across the five boroughs of New York.

What is your favorite type of music?
My playlist is insane. Press play and we’ll go from listening to “Conceited” by Flo Milli to “Redneck Woman” by Gretchen Wilson to “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails to “My Mom” by Eminem. I jam to it all.

Do you think the movie is anything like the real thing?
Yes and no! We are a bunch of wild, badass women slinging drinks and cutting off suit ties & ponytails like the movie portrays, but our bar in real life is so much more than that. Everything we do is for the people that walk into our bar. We strive to create memories for life. When people come back to Coyote Ugly to see me or when first timers tell me that I’ve made their entire night — it means the absolute world to me. That is why I do what I do.

Why should a potential customer come and visit you?
If you walk into my bar, I’m set on making sure you have a good time. Whether that’s because we got up on the bar and danced together, or we played a game of bar-wide flip cup with us Coyotes against the entire bar, or just had a good, simple conversation — whatever I do, I’m just trying to make your night memorable. What’s most important to me is that every single person that walks into my bar leaves better than they came in because of the experience my girls and I gave them.

Do you have any advice for women who want to be a Coyote?
Never give up. Ever. I came home after my first shift thinking this was clearly something I was not cut out for. But I wanted it. If you want it, you can have it. I was too in my head, too critical of myself. Get out of your own way.