In Los Angeles, the Margarita is greater than a cocktail, it’s a lingua franca. It’s ordered by the pitcher at neon-lit cantinas, clarified and crystalline at superb eating eating places, shaken with hibiscus on the Eastside or dosed with smoked pineapple distillate at one of many metropolis’s most bold cocktail bars. In a spot the place tequila is as frequent as visitors, the Margarita nonetheless dominates.

On a latest weekend, I requested bartenders throughout L.A. to share how Angelenos are ordering their Margaritas by tallying their gross sales for one evening of service. The numbers don’t lie. At Matt Egan and Max Reis’ new Sherman Oaks scorching spot, Daisy Margarita Bar, the namesake drink accounted for 424 orders. At Damian, Enrique Olvera’s Arts District restaurant, Margaritas made up almost 70 p.c of whole cocktail gross sales and Bar Flores, in Echo Park, bought 32 pitchers,15 nonalcoholic variations and a powerful 220 by-the-glass Margaritas—the cocktail is alive and effectively in all its many varieties. Even at a spirits-driven bar like the long-lasting cocktail hang-out Thunderbolt, the Margarita nonetheless accounts for about one-fifth of all orders.

In accordance with Jon Cross, GM and beverage director at Loreto, in Frogtown, the place greater than half of all orders are for Margaritas, the drink’s recognition is because of its particular geometry. “It’s the Platonic best of a bitter. Spirit, citrus, sweetener, tuned for stability. Tequila’s grassy warmth, lime’s sparkle, orange liqueur or agave’s cushion, then a salt rim that actually rewires your palate,” he says.

Each bar we surveyed has a minimum of one Margarita on the menu, however the approaches range. At Thunderbolt, the home take is La Frutera #3, a lush mix of tequila, guanábana, smoked pineapple distillate, pepita and cashew. Mírate’s best-seller is El Guero, an aguachile-inspired riff that performs like a Margarita in disguise. Daisy Margarita Bar pushes quantity via signatures just like the Salsa Verde Margarita (made with tomatillo, inexperienced chile and cilantro), whereas Bar Flores leads with its hibiscus-infused Pink Marg. At Valle, the crystal-clear, gold-dusted Maggie transforms the basic via milk-punch clarification.

Angelenos are extra concerned about what spirit goes into the combo greater than ever earlier than. As Cross put it, company are chasing transparency: “‘Is it additive-free?’ is the brand new ‘salt or no salt?’” Tromba’s blanco tequila was the most typical bottle for the job amongst surveyed bartenders, and Fortaleza was probably the most requested by identify. For orders of the basic drink, about two-thirds of company requested tequila, whereas one-third requested for mezcal.

Whereas most surveyed bars use a basic kosher salt rim, some cocktails, just like the gold-dusted Maggie at Valle or the cinnamon sugar-garnished home Cadillac at Damian, get artistic with it. Brynn Smith, at Bar Subsequent Door, stories that clients are ordering Tajín rims extra usually than salt. And at Daisy, there aren’t any salt rims in any way. As an alternative, the bar provides salt answer straight to the cocktail; they are saying this gives a superbly balanced drink. For bars that do provide salt rims, only a few clients (round one p.c) request their Margarita with out.

Let’s get to why you’re actually right here: the downright unhinged requests. At Daisy Margarita Bar, one buyer ordered a Casamigos Añejo Margarita with lime, lemon, orange juice and Citrus Splenda. At Mírate, a visitor referred to as for a model constructed on a half-pour of Fuenteseca 21-year Additional Añejo, no sweetener. Damian fielded a so-called French Margarita; as they put it: “As an alternative of Combier, they requested to substitute Chambord. We used crème de cassis as a substitute and it was surprisingly fairly tasty.” In accordance with Smith at Bar Subsequent Door, one bare-bones order is probably the most unhinged of all: simply lime juice and tequila within the glass, a “skinny Margarita” of kinds.

Skinny Margaritas accounted for about six p.c of Margarita orders. Surveyed bartenders discover the order perplexing. “Some folks say no sugar and sub agave. Some need simply lime and tequila. So [it’s] plenty of inquiries to ask,” says Karla Flores-Mercado of Bar Flores. Some imply much less sugar, others no agave in any respect. Loreto’s Jon Cross calls the consequence “A palate bomb in a rocks glass,” and Valle is equally confused with the order. He sums it up extra dryly: “The thin Marg; as a result of self-care and self-sabotage pair superbly with tequila.”