Dallas is home to the frozen margarita machine. The first machine ever made was back in 1971 when entrepreneur Mariano Martinez opened his first Mexican restaurant.
“It goes down to…supply and demand,” Edgar Zamor said. “And how Mariano Martinez was able to capture the attention [from] the people from Dallas.”
Zamor is the general manager of La Hacienda Ranch in Dallas. It was that exact restaurant where Martinez launched his first frozen margarita machine.
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“We get a lot of people that come through just because of the media,” Zamor said. “People hear about it and they know about the frozen margarita machine. They know that it was invented here. So we've got a lot of people that are excited to be here.”
While the drink was popular for the restaurant’s customers, it also had an impact on American food history.
“It becomes a story that's centered within the restaurant and the food,” Steve Velasquez said. “It becomes this unique food invention that becomes super popular. It's something different… It's fast, it's economical, and that starts to spread. And that becomes…one of the foundational food inventions that put Tex-Mex culture…on the map.”
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Since its creation, the frozen margarita has become so popular that it’s the “official” drink of Dallas and Texas overall.
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