Forget beer. Dallas wants its visitors to think of it as the official home of the frozen margarita.
To take ownership of this title, the city last week launched the Margarita Mile, a collection of the city’s best and most creative margaritas and the venues where they are served.
While they aren't technically along one mile, we have to admit the name is pretty catchy.
The city developed a mobile Margarita Mile app, available in the Apple Store and Google Play. The tour includes 17 stops.
Clearly, Dallas wants to be known for the margarita as much as Denver is known for beer and Napa Valley for wine.
“We’ve been boasting to visiting friends and family about the intrinsic virtues of the Dallas frozen margarita for decades, and now the Margarita Mile is here to back up our bragging,” says Frank Librio, chief marketing officer for VisitDallas, the city’s official tourism board.
On May 11, 1971, Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez turned a soft serve ice cream machine into a frozen margarita machine.
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. acquired the machine in 2005 to add to its collection.
According to the Smithsonian, Martinez was inspired by a frozen drink machine he had seen at a local convenience store.
The Smithsonian says frozen drinks have been around since the blender was invented in the 1930s. But bartenders could not figure out how to mass-produce them -- until Martinez came along.
Dallas has many Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants as well as cocktail lounges that produce a variety of margaritas with dozens of types of tequila.
Some margaritas come with twists such as liquid nitrogen, boba tea, avocados, and sangria popsicles.
“Dallas has elevated the frozen margarita,” Librio says.
Here are the restaurants included in the Margarita Mile (with pictures of their best margs in the gallery above):
Beto & Son
Cafe Herrera
Casa Komali
Desperados
El Fenix
Taqueria La Ventana
Mariano's
Matt's Rancho Martinez
Meso Maya
Nickel and Rye
Revolver Taco
Smoky Rose
Stampede 66
The Rustic
The Tipsy Alchemist
Urban Taco
Wild Salsa