(Wenjing Yang / For The Times)
The most delicious, creative margaritas to try in Los Angeles
Conflicting lore surrounds the birth of the margarita cocktail. One tale credits its invention to Carlos “Danny” Herrera at his restaurant Rancho La Gloria, between Rosarito and Tijuana, in 1938. Another claims that the beverage was created by bartender Don Carlos Orozco in Ensenada in 1941 and named after a customer.
Or was it in Juárez, at now-closed Tommy’s Place Bar, that Francisco “Pancho” Morales made the first margarita in 1942?
“The origins are murky, but it’s a staple in Mexican cuisine just like tortillas,” said Grace Perez, the bar lead at Damian, the Arts District restaurant from Mexico City-based chef Enrique Olvera.
A classic margarita (also the word for the flower daisy) has just three ingredients: tequila, orange liqueur and lime. It can be served over ice or blended, usually with salt rimmed around the glass.
“It’s just a great cocktail that you can enjoy with anything,” said Perez. “And it’s the backbone of a lot of cocktails that you see right now.”
Here in L.A., where you’ll find endless expressions of Mexican cuisine, local restaurants and bars are finding new ways to reimagine the classic margarita. At Damian, Perez uses the margarita menu to highlight the varied qualities of Mexico’s most traditional agave spirit.
“We pair each margarita with its own tequila because all tequila doesn’t taste the same. They all have their own nuances and flavor notes,” said Perez.
Just added to the menu this summer is El Coco, a margarita inspired by the culinary traditions of Veracruz. It uses an espadin from Agua Del Sol as the base spirit, with soursop-infused rice vodka, coconut, lime and agave.
“I really wanted to highlight these parts of Mexico that people don’t really think about,” said Perez. “The coconut and soursop pairing is something that’s common [in] Veracruz, where it’s more tropical.”
That’s just a taste of what you’ll find across our local bar scene. There are classic Mexican restaurants that have perfected their margarita recipes over decades, and newer craft cocktail bars adding their own flourishes to the three-ingredient foundation. From happy hour deals to margarita flights and frozen concoctions perfect for summer, these are L.A.’s most delicious and creative margaritas.
Showing Places
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Bar Flores
Echo Park Bar
This second-story bar off Sunset feels like you’re drinking in an eclectic friend’s stylish home with exposed ceilings, wood floors and picture windows that look over the boulevard. Head out back to the bougainvillea-lush patio, where you can settle under umbrellas and check out rotating food pop-ups. There’s only one margarita on the cocktail menu — the eponymous Flores — but the pink-hued, hibiscus-driven take is one worth seeking out, especially on Margarita Wednesdays, when they pay homage to the now-defunct Echo Park haunt Barragan’s with $9 margaritas from 4 p.m. to midnight.
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Casa Vega
Sherman Oaks Mexican Cuisine
Founded by Rafael “Ray” Vega in 1956, Casa Vega helped popularize Mexican American cuisine in the San Fernando Valley, and eventually became an industry favorite thanks to its convenient location near Universal Studios. You’ll recognize the restaurant’s maroon leather booths and string-lighted bar from director Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.” According to Ray’s daughter Christy, who now runs Casa Vega, the director often would get behind the bar to mix up his own margarita. Dubbed the Tarantino, it’s since been added to the permanent menu. With aged tequila, lemon, lime and orange juices and lemon stevia, it’s a zesty concoction that goes down smooth. Other margaritas of note include the mojito-reminiscent cucumber-mint, the classic that comes with a sidecar and branded swizzle stick, and the sour-sweet guava. The frozen margaritas are sweet and refreshing but taste watered down compared with the options served over ice. Casa Vega also gets points for having a nonalcoholic spicy jamaica margarita that is just as complex as boozy versions.
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(Sierra Prescott)
Damian
Downtown L.A. Mexican $$$
The cocktail program at artsy-industrial Damian is centered around agave-based spirits, with mezcal and tequila flights available. There’s also a section dedicated to margaritas, with classic, mezcal-spiked, spicy and Cadillac variations available. The rotating frozen margarita is where bar lead Grace Perez really gets creative, using it as an opportunity to showcase Mexico’s vast culinary traditions. With El Coco, she highlights the popular coconut and soursop combination you’ll find in drinks in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where Perez’s family hails from. Perfect for summer with a tropical edge, the seasonal margarita features mezcal, soursop rice-based vodka, coconut, lime and agave. During the winter, Perez puts a frozen yuzu margarita on the menu. Pair your drinks with highlights from head chef Chuy Cervantes’ menu, including a salmon tostada sprinkled with crunchy chicatana ants, duck carnitas and a fluffy hibiscus meringue.
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Don Antonio's
Sawtelle Mexican $$
A Westside institution since the 1980s, Don Antonio’s feels like a time warp with its half-circle booths and curved, textured cave-like walls. There’s also a patio with potted plants, string lights and papel picado waving in the wind. This is where you go for homey Mexican American favorites such as enchiladas, crispy tacos and sizzling fajitas that billow smoke every time they’re brought out to tables. The margarita menu includes big goblets with syrupy fruit flavors that are served over ice or blended, but I prefer the house margaritas that come in standard glasses. Mezcal tempers the tamarindo so it’s not overly sweet, and the pepino loco, with mezcal and muddled cucumber, is refreshing, with a slight spiciness thanks to a Tajin rim. Don Antonio’s also served the best spicy margarita I tried, with bits of muddled Serrano chile that occasionally slurp through the straw for a spicy (but welcome) surprise.
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El Cholo
Harvard Heights Eatery
The original El Cholo on Western opened just over a century ago and the den-like interior, with distressed walls, an arched fireplace, a wall fountain and framed photos and memorabilia, feels stuck in time. The Mexican American standby has since expanded to additional locations in Santa Monica, downtown and as far as Salt Lake City, and the menu lists the year each dish was created. You can time travel with chile con carne, albondigas and Sonoran-style enchiladas that appeared on the restaurant’s opening menu, or try newer entrants such as mole chicken enchiladas that were added last year. The cocktail menu is dedicated almost entirely to margaritas, with a house version that’s served in a pint glass, the L.A. Lemonade that arrives in a martini glass and tastes similar to a lemon drop, and the famous frozen coconut margarita that’s rimmed with toasted coconut. An array of frozen fruit margaritas is available, along with Zapata’s Widow, a spirit-forward cocktail with fresh lime juice and a tequila float.
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(Chris Erskine / Los Angeles Times)
El Compadre
Hollywood Eatery
Open since 1975, this Hollywood haunt has everything you want in an old-school Mexican restaurant: generous portions, shiny red leather booths and a festive atmosphere with servers singing “Feliz Cumpleaños” to every other table. Here, margaritas can be rimmed with salt or Tajin, mixed with flavors such as strawberry, coconut or mango, and served over ice or blended. But its the dramatic presentation that sets it apart. The signature cocktail arrives in a fiery flourish with a flaming round of lemon as garnish. It stays lit long enough for you to record a Boomerang “Cheers” for Instagram. The margarita uses a house sweet and sour and aged tequila with your flavor of choice — I opt for classic — and the fire seems an omen for just how strong it is. The periodical-length menu has something for everyone. All these decades later, El Compadre still proves one of the best, most nostalgic places to mark a special occasion.
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Esperanza Cocina de la Playa
Manhattan Beach Mexican $$
You’ll feel like you’re dining in Tulum at this glitzy restaurant with a coastal palette that’s just blocks from the Manhattan Beach Pier. The menu is Mexican with an emphasis on seafood including ceviches, mesquite-grilled meats, enchiladas and fish of the day. The margarita menu spans two pages, with drinks served over ice (or blended by request) with your choice of kosher salt, smoked pasilla chile salt, tajin or a sugar rim. The watermelon cilantro cooler is what I’d order if I wanted something rejuvenating with a hint of spice, but the coconut pineapple margarita surprised me the most. With a rim of shredded coconut, fresh lime and an amaro float, it’s best described as a piña colada in the form of a margarita.
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Guerrilla Tacos
Downtown L.A. Mexican $$
This modern Mexican restaurant in the Arts District began as a taco cart from chef Wes Avila and is now in the hands of owner Brittney Valles with executive chef Crystal Espinoza helming the kitchen. The food menu features rotating and permanent tacos, plus oysters, a delicious poke tostada and other seasonally driven dishes. Cocktails favor agave-derived spirits and Guerrilla Tacos hosts a monthly Mezcal Monday event to educate about the traditional Mexican spirit. There’s only one margarita on the beverage menu, but as the name suggests — F— Good Margarita — it’s the only one you’ll need. It’s a simple combination of tequila, lime and agave with slices of dried blood orange as garnish. Upgrade it with mezcal for $1 more to give it an earthy edge.
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LA Cha Cha Chá
Downtown L.A. Mexican $$
It makes sense that the verdant rooftop restaurant and bar in the Arts District with a sister location in Mexico City would have a couple margaritas on the cocktail menu. The jamaica, with a sweet tartness that makes it dangerously drinkable, was my favorite, but the spicy pineapple is a close second, with a refreshing balance of sugar and spice. The spicy pineapple and classic margaritas are discounted during happy hour Tuesday to Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., alongside bites such as aguachile, tacos dorados and a Baja scallop tostada.
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Maestro
Pasadena Modern Mexican
Duck into this narrow restaurant and patio in Old Pasadena for oysters topped with cucumber aguachile, enmoladas bathed in earthy-sweet mole and cheesy shrimp-potato tacos bobbing in a rich tomato sauce. The bar program proves just as impressive, with rotating flights of mezcal and classic cocktails reinterpreted with agave distillates. Rimmed with Tajin, the tamarindo margarita gains smokiness from mezcal and guajillo chile that offsets the sweetness of the fruit. The picosito, also with mezcal, is the restaurant’s take on a spicy margarita, with jalapeño and poblano chiles that are tempered thanks to cucumber, lime and agave. With a slice of watermelon as garnish and muddled bits of fruit swirling in the glass, the watermelon margarita is a refreshing choice, and the combination of mezcal with pasilla chile liqueur adds layers of smoke to its straightforward sweetness.
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Mírate
Los Feliz Mexican $$$
There’s a world of agave-based spirits to explore at Mirate, a multilevel restaurant in Los Feliz. All of the spirits here are produced in Mexico, including less traditional options such as rum and sake. Mezcal flights are available, as are cocktails that serve as loose interpretations of classic drinks, such as El Guero, a creative take on the margarita with aguachile, nopales granita, coconut and avocado-washed tequila. There’s also a Cadillac margarita, garnished with an extra-añejo float, and Tommy’s Margarita, based on the version that substitutes triple sec with agave, first made by bartender Julio Bermejo at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco in the 1990s. But I recommend the margarita “ji bol” that is canned on-site. The clear and bubbly drink recalls the crispness of your favorite seltzer, with lime and tequila giving it a sharpness that’s not far off from Ranch Water.
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Openaire
Koreatown Californian $$
In a greenhouse restaurant that’s perched two levels above Wilshire, you can order a margarita that feels made for L.A. with activated charcoal, a powder that is purported to aid digestion. The pitch-black cocktail is eye-catching, but the taste lines up pretty closely to a classic margarita, with a strong lime flavor. It’s also served at the Lobby Bar on the ground floor where, during daily happy hour from 3 to 7 p.m., you can compare it to a stripped-down version that’s just $12.
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The Rose Venice
Venice New American $$
Chef Ray Garcia of Broken Spanish and Brown Sheep recently took over the kitchen at this sprawling Venice restaurant. The menu has been updated to reflect that change, but it’s still rooted in California cuisine with local, market-fresh ingredients. Alongside a just-launched breakfast burrito, fried chicken sandwich and baked eggs with Spanish chorizo, there’s also a brand-new lineup of cocktails. The strawberry and celery margarita was a pleasant surprise — the tequila is infused with strawberry so it’s not overly fruity, the rhubarb and citrus amaro lends it a hint of puckery tartness, and the celery tempers the concoction so that it’s still sippable.
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Salazar
Elysian Valley Restaurant
This shady patio perched on a corner in Frogtown would be easy to miss were it not for the cobalt-blue exterior. With sand flooring, a cactus border and a slatted wooden roof, the open-air restaurant is a breezy spot to while away a weekend afternoon. The daytime menu is straightforward, with tacos, burritos and quesadillas, while dinner brings wood-grilled mains such as hanger steak with cilantro-chimichurri sauce and roasted seasonal vegetables.
The beverage menu puts a focus on agave-derived spirits, with mezcal flights and an entire section dedicated to margaritas. The frozen prickly pear is a favorite and for good reason. It’s sweet, tart and cooling on a hot summer day. The ginger margarita, garnished with a piece of ginger candy, is the runner-up: Fresh-pressed ginger collides with zesty lime for a punch of sour and spice. Salazar also offers margarita flights with a trio of pineapple, watermelon and ginger flavors. The watermelon is another solid choice that gets a slight kick thanks to ancho chile liqueur.
The beverage menu puts a focus on agave-derived spirits, with mezcal flights and an entire section dedicated to margaritas. The frozen prickly pear is a favorite and for good reason. It’s sweet, tart and cooling on a hot summer day. The ginger margarita, garnished with a piece of ginger candy, is the runner-up: Fresh-pressed ginger collides with zesty lime for a punch of sour and spice. Salazar also offers margarita flights with a trio of pineapple, watermelon and ginger flavors. The watermelon is another solid choice that gets a slight kick thanks to ancho chile liqueur.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times )
The Hideaway
Beverly Hills Mexican Steakhouse $$$
It’s hard to avoid having at least one margarita at the Hideaway, a chic second-story restaurant with an inviting skylit patio. During the week, you’ll find a margarita sorbet on the three-course prix fixe lunch menu. At weekend brunch, a margarita cart makes the rounds from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., offering tableside margaritas and flights. And at dinner, or anytime, you can order from the margarita menu that includes prickly pear, mango and — my favorite — a pink margarita with rose-infused tequila, rose petals, elderflower, agave and lime that’s citrusy and floral but not too sweet. Any of the margaritas can be ordered by the pitcher except for the frozen strawberry. The buzzy Beverly Hills restaurant opened in 2022 and describes itself as a Baja California-inspired steakhouse, with a menu that covers empanadas, ceviches and tableside steak and lobster.
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Tu Madre
Los Feliz Mexican $$
With a lengthy menu of tacos and a penchant for locations with spacious and picturesque patios, Tu Madre is a charming outpost for sipping margaritas. And instead of wasting time wondering which flavors to get, you can try the margarita flight which arrives in spectacular fashion with a sparkler and allows you to sample generous pours of the hibiscus, tamarind, blood orange and passion fruit flavors. You’ll get a choice of tequila or mezcal, or you can upgrade to premium spirits.
Margarita pitchers are also available, including cucumber-jalapeño and a bloody Maria-adjacent margarita with mezcal, carrot, turmeric and ginger. Guacamole, nachos and street corn are available for sharing, and tacos, burritos and bowls draw from L.A.’s food scene and boast fresh produce, such as fried squash blossoms and a Korean BBQ-inspired option with 36-hour marinated steak (or mushroom for the vegans). Happy hour is Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. with margaritas and other classic cocktails offered at a reduced price.
Margarita pitchers are also available, including cucumber-jalapeño and a bloody Maria-adjacent margarita with mezcal, carrot, turmeric and ginger. Guacamole, nachos and street corn are available for sharing, and tacos, burritos and bowls draw from L.A.’s food scene and boast fresh produce, such as fried squash blossoms and a Korean BBQ-inspired option with 36-hour marinated steak (or mushroom for the vegans). Happy hour is Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. with margaritas and other classic cocktails offered at a reduced price.
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