Fifty Years Ago a Texan Changed Happy Hour Forever
In the cantina the cocktail servers were adjusting their sequined miniskirts, while waitresses in black lace-up vests, gaucho pants, and tall boots chatted and laughed in the simulated moonlight of the dining room. A gregarious young man named Mariano Martinez rushed around in white leather bell-bottoms, setting out bottles of tequila and fresh limes. The date was May 7, 1971, and it was opening night of the much-anticipated Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine, in the tony Old Town shopping center of Dallas. At five o’clock, the doors swung open, and the crowd surged in and immediately started ordering frozen margaritas. In less than two hours, everything had gone straight to hell.
It wasn’t that everyone was drunk, but it did have to do with the margaritas. The first round was great, but pretty soon the bartenders were so backlogged they just started throwing ingredients in the blenders. No two drinks were alike, and everybody was complaining. One worker snapped at Martinez, “I’ve got cramps in my hands from squeezing those damn limes. I’m going back to Steak and Ale, where all they want is bourbon and Coke.” The 26-year-old proprietor was terrified, imagining his reputation going down the drain along with gallons of lousy margaritas.
Martinez, now 76, takes up the story he has recounted with gusto for five decades. “I tossed and turned all that night,” he says. “The next morning I went to 7-Eleven for coffee and a pack of gum.” While there, he glanced at the store’s Slurpee machine, and “it came to me in a flash, like a gift from God.” If that thing could make a slushy soft drink, surely it could make a frozen margarita. When the Southland Corporation, the parent company of 7-Eleven at the time, declined to sell him one, he and a mechanically minded friend named Frank Adams bought a used SaniServ soft-serve ice cream machine and lugged it to the restaurant. “We tinkered around with it,” he remembers; they installed a stronger motor and compressor to swirl and chill the ingredients, and then Martinez experimented with different amounts of tequila, orange liqueur, and fresh lime juice. A few days later, on May 11, as they were setting the industrial-looking apparatus on the bar, he recalled a bit of advice from his friend Norman Brinker, the brains behind Chili’s. The restaurant guru had cautioned that people wouldn’t pay much for a drink made by a machine. He’d also warned him not to destroy the mood. So Martinez covered the shiny stainless-steel box with wood-grain contact paper. The icy green slush that would soon emerge from it was about to make cocktail history.
Born in Dallas in 1944, Martinez grew up in a family with deep roots in the Mexican restaurant business. His mother, Vera, was related to the Cuellar family, which founded the Dallas-based El Chico chain, in 1940. She worked as an administrative manager in the office of the Oak Lawn location, and his father, Mariano, put in eighty hours a week managing the upscale Lakewood-area restaurant.
Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/fifty-years-ago-a-texan-changed-happy-hour-forever/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I thought that the story was worthy of being posted in the Lounge. 
what an interesting, amazing success story in the Mexican Restaurante business!
Muchas Gracias, TexasT!
Last edited Wed Apr 14, 2021, 10:13 PM - Edit history (1)
I was having a craving for an icy drink since I have difficulty getting to any restaurants .
It's a change of pace to read an article that is pleasant and informative. Those margarita machines have become so commonplace that it is easy to forget that somewhat had the ingenuity and mechanical skills to make his idea come to fruition. 
before.. this is all fascinating news to me!
And, the restaurant business is always interesting having worked in them for many years as a waitress and a cook.
What is "Sonid" where you had your Slush from?
The story caught my attention so I decided to share it. Hopefully the people that read this on DU will have a story to tell their friends the next time they go out for drinks.
Paz
Now you will know the answer to who invented the frozen margarita machine the next time you play a trivia game at a bar. 
But few people are willing to share it. 
Interesting story!
"To Kill a Longneck" (we pronounced it Tequila Longneck) party where the liberal arts students enjoyed their libations. The campus was nearly dead the following day as the students nursed their hangovers.
My brother has a bottle of tequila here, but it has over a decade since I did any tequila shots.
I always preferred a straight shot with salt on my hand and lime to suck on with a beer on the side. That is how I celebrated my 18th birthday in college.
We were a tad wasted when we got back to the dining common.
and rooting for Mr. Martinez. I'll be thinking about this story when I have my next margarita.
I probably would think of this story too, but I rarely drink Margs.
What a great post! As a native Texas (but having lived in my beloved California for most of my adult life), I just love the way this whole story unfolds.
Thank you so much for sharing it! I may not have ever read or known about how this really cool part of history.
post. I also don't want to come across as promoting alcohol since I know that there are members here that have dealt with sobriety issues. It's the ambition, ingenuity, and ultimate success of Mr. Martinez that makes his story interesting. I'm glad that I could share the story since I consider it a learning experience for everyone.
and I noticed the drink with his name on it is a rocks version and almost the same as I make them (I use a different tequila and will sweeten with agave syrup if the limes are too extreme)