Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published April 3, 2025 5:00 AM
Margaritas have come a long way since the days of boozy slushies. Case in point, Dat Purple Marg from Accomplice in Mar Vista.
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Leela Cyd
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Topline:
Caroline Pardilla’s new book Margarita Time explores the cocktail’s eclectic history and creative present while proclaiming it the unofficial cocktail of Los Angeles. Her reasoning is simple: vibes, ingredients, a relaxed attitude and great Mexican food.
Margarita mixology: L.A's innovative offerings include a margarita on draft, a salted red onion syrup version and a clarified creation that uses a centrifuge.
Can I make it at home? Sure. The pandemic turned us all into amateur mixologists. Experiment and enjoy!
Read on ... for local marg recommendations and a recipe.
It’s hard to remember, but there was a time when you ordered a margarita it would come frozen and blended like a slushie. Often accompanied by a jaunty umbrella.
The margarita had first gained popularity in its classic form in the '50s and '60s but by the time the '70s and '80s came around, it was subjected to bottled juices, low-quality tequila and other indignities.
It wasn't until the early 2000s, when bartenders began to experiment once more with fresh ingredients and quality spirits, that the margarita became once again drink worth seeking out.
“Because of the cocktail renaissance, with all the fresh fruit and all these new techniques, something with a basic formula such as the margarita is just so easy to play with,” says L.A. writer Caroline Pardilla, author of the new book Margarita Time : 60+ Tequila & Mezcal Cocktails, Served Up, Over & Blended
Today, you'll see bartenders competing with each other to dream up modern, creative, boundary-pushing margarita variations, especially in L.A.
Los Angeles vibes
"Margarita Time" includes plenty of recipes for the home bartender.
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Ten Speed Press
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For Pardilla, who's covered the cocktail scene in L.A. for 20 years, the drink represents the city. You can find a margarita anywhere.
“If there are limes, tequila, or orange liqueur, that place can make you a margarita,” she says.
Pardilla proclaims it L.A's unofficial cocktail. Her reasoning? Vibes.
"It’s a cocktail that speaks to our chill and relaxed attitude," Pardilla says.
Add to that the weather, quality ingredients, abundant produce available year-round and "great Mexican food," and it seems like a slam dunk.
Plus, as the cherry on top (or the salt on the rim), she says, Angelenos are not afraid to experiment. “We’re always trying something new."
Her book includes many such creations, including a red onion margarita and a Black Forest margarita.
Hang Loose Brah from Christine Wiseman
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Leela Cyd
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Part history, part how-to-guide and part recipes, the book looks at margaritas past and present. The drink goes back to Prohibition, when Americans would drive across the U.S.-Mexico border to sample a similar drink that wasn't necessarily made with tequila. Other origin stories she mentions include the Ziegfeld follies and an improvising bartender.
Weird, wacky and wonderful
Since we are, indeed, up to try new things, we asked Pardilla to highlight some of the most creative margarita options currently on offer in L.A. This is what she pointed to:
Red Zeppelin from Big Bar in Los Feliz, served by bartender Abigail Smith. It's a red onion margarita made with reposado tequila, pineapple rum, lime juice and salted red onion syrup. "It provides a savory and complex flavor," Pardilla says. (Recipe in the book).
A Bond Far Greater at Here's Looking at You in Koreatown. Every season, bartender Daniel Rubenstein presents new riffs on the classics, but Pardilla says the springtime margarita is a "must order." Made with red beet-infused blanco tequila, peanut and borage leaf syrup, fresh lime juice, orange liqueur and fire tincture, it takes you on a roller coaster ride of flavors, from bright citrus to heat to a nutty finish.
Clarified margarita from bartender Max Reis at Mirate in Los Feliz. Reis has made a name for himself with unconventional cocktail-making techniques. Here, his clarified margarita uses a lime cordial, filtered using a centrifuge, which requires separating the solids from the lime juice. According to Pardilla, this method provides more subtle and nuanced flavors and lets the tequila’s natural properties shine through.(Recipe in the book is centifruge-free!)
Want to make a Tommy's margarita at home?
The Tommy margarita was invented in the late 1980s in San Francisco at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant by bartender Julio Bermejo. Here's the recipe:
You'll need:
2 ounces reposado tequila
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1⁄2 ounce agave nectar
Lime wedge for garnish
Add the tequila, lime juice and agave nectar to a shaker filled with ice and shake for 15 seconds. Strain over fresh ice in a rock glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.
Taking the party to your living room
If you started upping your home cocktail game during the pandemic, Pardilla hopes her book will guide you to greater heights — at least for margaritas.
”A lot of people are more comfortable making cocktails at home, following bartenders on social media, and watching cocktail videos," Pardilla says. "I thought the margarita is a cocktail that everybody knows and loves, so how about trying different versions of it?”
