The Margarita Man
Regardless of his then lack of education, Martinez was ambitious, and in 1971 he opened his own restaurant serving Mexican food, and of course margaritas were on the drink list. Things went a little tough on the restaurant's first night. His staff had only one blender to make frozen margaritas, and not enough cut limes, they were unable to keep up with the drink orders. During an interview for Pegasus News, Martinez recalled, “We were burning up blenders faster than I could afford to buy new ones, but customers were complaining that the drinks were inconsistent and bartenders were complaining that the drinks were too difficult to make."
An unhappy Martinez took a long walk one night and stopped at a local 7/11 store, where he found his inspirational Slurpee machine. He observed that the machine could serve frozen drinks fast, could handle a high volume of customers, and every drink was the same. The gears in the restauranteur now turned inventor's head were turning.
While inspired by the Slurpee, it was a soft-serve ice cream machine that Mariano Martinez took and modified to make his first prototype. Mariano Martinez never patented his invention. He recalled, “I never even dreamed I had anything to patent, I was only interested in my restaurant. I wasn’t interested in going into the machine business.” Others were interested in the machine business, and began manufacturing the frozen margarita machine commercially.
Martinez tested that margarita machine in his first restaurant Mariano’s Hacienda, and kept using it for thirty-four years before retiring it out of service.
In the Smithsonian
The "World's First Frozen Margarita Machine," is now exhibited at the Smithsonian. In a press release the Smithsonian announced that they had acquired the world's first frozen margarita machine, invented on May 11, 1971 by Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez. The museum's director Brent D. Glass stated that, "The invention of the frozen margarita machine is a classic example of the American entrepreneurial spirit." Mariano Martinez' prototype machine is being exhibited along with other wonders in the Smithsonian, such as the Tupperware wonder bowls and a Krispy Kreme Ring King.Margarita Facts
When Mariano Martinez first started serving margaritas in his restaurant in 1971, they were not a common cocktail in the United States. Most American regarded them as something you drank during a trip to Mexico, where the drink originated.- The margarita is the number one most popular cocktail in the world
- Margarita machines are now in thirty-six different countries
- In the United States alone, 180,000 margaritas are consumed every hour
- Mariano Martinez was the first Mexican American to join the fancy Lakewood Country Club in Dallas,other famous members of the country club included Henry Wade of Roe v. Wade.
The Martinez Margarita
In an interview with ABC Nightline, Mariano Martinez revealed his own personal recipe for a margarita, and you won't need the frozen machine for this one.For every cocktail, make two ounces of hand-squeezed fresh lemon or lime juice. Get yourself a shaker and fill it with ice. Pour into it, the fresh juice, one and a quarter ounces of pure Agave tequila per drink, and one ounce of Grand Marnier per drink. Shake it with a vengeance five times, and pour.
