Daytona Beach, Fla., Mar. 7–16 — If you’ve walked down Main Street during Daytona Bike Week, you’ve seen the stunning brunette garbed in a brightly colored bikini decorated with butterflies or flowers. Known to many as Daytona Tie, her real name is Tiesa Ortez and she was born and raised in Piermont, New York, moving to Daytona Beach with her family when she was 14.
Tie has worked Bike Week and Biketoberfest for 16 years at Main Street Station, taking vacation time from her regular job at a local law firm. She reveals, “I used to get these little outfits from Frederick’s of Hollywood. After a while, I figured I could make my own. I started to get creative, and I just became the flower and butterfly girl. Three or four weeks before each event, I go into Bike Week production. I never, ever wear the same thing twice. After every event I take everything apart, wash everything, and I have Bike Week bags I keep in the closet, and drawers for my flowers and jewelry. When I get ready I break out my little treasure chest and start pinning everything together. I usually go to the store and buy some new stuff, like the flower centerpieces, and recycle the rest of my outfit to go around it.”
How did she get the name Daytona Tie? “A few years ago, I was Daytona Tie on my website. But here they call me TieTie. I guess I kind of acquired that from working next to BonBon for so many years. It was BonBon and TieTie. Now I work next to Kiki. So it’s TieTie and Kiki.” She’s got more nicknames: “At the law firm they call me the president of first impressions. They also call me Tie-riffic.” When I stop by the Main Street Station a few days later, she exclaims, “Today is Tie-riffic Tuesday!”
Tie says, “I keep track of how many cases of beer I’ve sold. That’s how I gauge how business has been. About 12 years ago, I sold 96 cases of beer one night. They were drinking it warm. The most cases I sold this past Bike Week was 36. One Biketoberfest I did 42 cases. It just depends on the kind of crowds you have. This is a good year. It’s really coming back. Hotels were fuller and it seemed to be more of a steady crowd—no low points. I’d much rather be jamming, and then all of a sudden, ‘It’s 3:00 a.m.! They’re shutting the band down and I gotta go!’”
Why is Tie everyone’s favorite beer-tub girl? She declares, “I just don’t like to be a trashy person. I know I’m not the slimmest Victoria’s Secret model on the street corner, but I just enjoy making people laugh and smile, giving them some good conversation—more than just buying a beer. Giving them a few minutes of time makes them feel good and that brings them back. I like to get to know people; they come from all over. It makes me feel wonderful. I have people that have been coming back for years. I call them the usual suspects. They bring me back pictures going way back. A lady from Germany comes back every year; once she told me, ‘I have a gallery in Germany. Everyone loves your pictures!’ So I’m hanging on some wall in Germany. It’s the craziest thing!”
She continues, “I have a group of people from Canada that come every year. ‘We saw you in our local travel magazine for Bike Week.’ Really?” She tells me she auditioned to appear on Big Brother. “I didn’t make it,” she says, “but they ended up calling me and asked me to be on another TV show called Let’s Ask America where you play via Skype. After it aired, I was working Bike Week, and some guys from Ohio said, ‘You were on that game show!’ It was wild.”
I tell Tie she’s every guy’s fantasy. “I have a wonderful boyfriend and life is good, man.” She laughs. “Keep dreamin’, boys!”
