Bar News
Saloon with servers dancing on bar top closes Fort Worth location
The famous Coyote Ugly Saloon chain of bars, promoting "beautiful girls and booze since 1993," has more than 25 locations around the world. But now there's one less: The Coyote Ugly Saloon in Fort Worth has shut down.
The bar, which opened at 3005 Bledsoe St. in the West Seventh District in 2017, closed in January, confirmed by spokesperson Lee Killingsworth.
"We were there two years and hoped the neighborhood would flourish, but West Seventh has not taken off like everyone expected," Killingsworth says. "They still keep saying it's going to happen. But we were seeing a decline in traffic. There was a lower amount of traffic than from what we saw even two years ago."
"On paper, the neighborhood made sense, but it didn't come to fruition," he says. "We're disappointed, because it really was a beautiful location."
Founder Liliana Lovell opened the first Coyote Ugly Saloon in New York City in 1993, eschewing Wall Street for a career as a bartender. The concept took off after a movie about the bar with the same name was released in 2000. Franchise locations opened in Las Vegas, San Antonio, and Austin. The chain currently has 14 locations in the U.S. and another 12 in countries abroad such as England, Japan, and Russia.
Its trademark is having female servers dance atop the bar, entertaining the crowd with songs, games, and body shots. Their approach to cocktails defies current craft trends: no froufrou shaken or stirred concoctions, and nothing that requires a blender or more than two ingredients to make.
The closure leaves Texas with only two locations, in Austin and San Antonio. But the chain is still considering opening a location in Dallas, Killingsworth says.
"We've been working on a deal in Deep Ellum for two years, but there's been a lot of turnover on landlords," he says. "We're also in the process of expanding internationally, and that's taken a lot of our attention. But Dallas is still on our list."
