Resilient bar owner celebrates 25 years of success — and grit

Two-plus decades running bars and nightclubs have taught Joanna Olsen a lot about resilience and persistence. “Never quit," she says. "Just get back in there and conquer."

By Mark Gordon
| 5:00 a.m. June 19, 2024
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Joanna Olsen has been the bar and nightclub industry for 25 years.

Florida

Longtime Tampa Bay and Florida entrepreneur and bar owner Joanna Olsen has two remote-drop movies in her life, the flicks she will stop whatever she’s doing to watch.

Widely different in plot and tone, both films, which originated as novels — "The Godfather" and "Great Expectations" — share similar themes in Olsen’s life: tenacity, resilience, overcoming challenges big and small, unending loyalty and a relentless never-settle disposition.

Olsen is celebrating a big milestone this year as a leader and business owner: 25 years running nightclubs and bars. Her flagship spot, her baby as she calls it, is the Coyote Ugly Saloon in Ybor City in Tampa. The bar, known for its cowboy style and women bartenders with a penchant for serving drinks while dancing on the bar, is part of the Coyote Ugly network that debuted in New York City in 1993. The popular movie Coyote Ugly came out seven years later, based on a magazine article written by a former bartender. (The movie isn’t based on Olsen’s life. But she shares some characteristics with the real life tough-love, gritty bar owner and Coyote Ugly founder Liliana ‘Lil,’ Lovell, played in the movie by Maria Bello.)