The frozen margarita was invented in Dallas. The machine that made it is in the Smithsonian, sitting next to Julia Child’s kitchen and the first Tupperware. And somehow, fifty-five years later, this is still not the first thing Dallas tells people about itself.
May 11, 1971. Mariano Martinez, 25 years old, four days into running his first restaurant near SMU, had a bartender threatening to quit and 200 margarita orders a night coming into a kitchen with one blender. The drinks were inconsistent, sometimes warm, never the same twice. He stopped at a 7-Eleven, watched a kid drink a Slurpee — itself a Dallas invention — and understood immediately what he needed to do. He found a secondhand soft-serve ice cream machine, spent weeks tinkering with his father’s recipe until the sugar content produced a uniform slush, moved the machine to the bar, and pulled the lever. It worked the first time and every time after that.
He never patented it. Within a few years, versions of the machine spread to bars in 46 countries. By the end of the decade, the margarita had surpassed the martini as America’s most popular cocktail. Martinez donated the original machine to the Smithsonian in 2005. Bob Hope had already done the math: “I won’t say how big the glass was,” he joked after ordering one at Mariano’s in the ’70s, “but it had a diving board on it.”
The machine is in Washington. The margaritas are still in Dallas. Here’s where to get one.
Mariano’s Hacienda at 6300 Skillman Street is the obvious starting point and the correct one. Martinez still runs the restaurant. The original recipe — his father’s, from a San Antonio speakeasy in 1938 — is still on the menu. The Mariano, hand-shaken and served on the rocks with a lime cut like a daisy, is the most popular. The frozen version is what started everything. Order it with the history in mind.
El Fenix has been making frozen margaritas in Dallas since before most people knew what one was. The house frozen — simple, consistent, salt-rimmed — is the Texas standard that everything else gets measured against. Mi Cocina‘s Mambo Taxi is the most famous margarita in the city, a potent frozen pour that has been driving lunch crowds to Highland Park Village since 1991 and shows no sign of slowing down. José on Lovers Lane takes the format seriously — seasonal frozen builds, quality tequila, nothing from a mix. The spicy frozen margarita with jalapeño-infused tequila has developed its own following. Palma in Deep Ellum runs margaritas on tap — classic, spicy jalapeño, and piña with caramelized pineapple — with swirls of blackberry, blood orange, or hibiscus available as add-ins. It is the most theatrical version of the format currently operating in Dallas.
The frozen margarita turns 55 this year. America turns 250. Dallas made both worth celebrating.
