She’s a tall drink of … Margarita.

I had previously rated Edison’s Margarita Flight and I wasn’t all that impressed with it so on this particular visit, I was going to skip the Margarita tasting altogether (shocking, I know). However, I just happened to notice that Edison’s had a (new?) Margarita on their menu. Called the “Elevated Margarita”, it listed Patron Tequila, triple sec, lime juice, sweet & sour mix, orange juice, and an optional floater of Patron Citronge. With ingredients like that, there was no way I was skipping this Margarita!

The great news is that the Margarita stood up to its billing. Light and refreshing, it had great lime flavor and was not too sweet. All the flavors were well-balanced and I thoroughly enjoyed that drink. I give it an 8 overall and definitely recommend it to anyone who visits Edison’s. Assuming you come with your kids, why not take a break and treat yourself to a tasty Margarita?

Yes, that’s a comic book bar top. Totally 80’s!

If you grew up in the 80’s, you might be a fan of arcade games. I say “might” because as one who did grow up in the 80’s, I know that not everyone was a fan of video games. Guys who played video games back then were usually considered geeks. I like to say that I was into video games and computers before they were cool. As an example, when I left for college in 1992, none of my friends owned consoles or were even much interested in video games at all. When I got back from college, it seemed they all owned Playstations. Thanks guys. Anyway, I digress. Visiting Unkle Munkey’s Coin Club in Edwardsville, IL is like going back in time. It is a classic arcade combined with a bar. The establishment is owned by the same people who own Wang Gang Asian Eats (home of the Yum Yum Boom Boom Margarita) so I had high hopes that I would find my own personal nirvana among 80’s video games and Margaritas.

As far as the Margarita went, it was a little bit on the tart side. I could tell it was made with a mix, not that I necessarily expected a handcrafted concoction. All that being said, it was still tasty overall, but not just not up to the standard of a top-shelf Margarita. I’d give it a 7, as while it wasn’t necessarily a great Margarita, it was definitely satisfying enough after some intensive 80’s arcade action!

Dos Lunas Reposado on the left, Dos Lunas Silver on the right.

Since I last wrote about the Margaritas at El Maguey in Edwardsville, IL, I’ve revisited there several times. I’ve didn’t write about those visits because I didn’t think there was necessarily anything much different to say. Since that time I’ve expanded my Margarita palette significantly and when my family decided to stop by again, I thought it would be fun to mix it up a little bit.

To be honest, the last couple of times I visited El Maguey, I felt that the quality of their Margarita had slipped just a little bit. Now it may just be me, having tasted some really excellent Margaritas over the past year, but regardless I was looking for something special this time. I just happened to notice a table advertisement for Dos Lunas tequila, which I really liked when I had a chance to buy a bottle several months earlier. So I asked the server if they could make a Margarita with Dos Lunas. They said they could so I ordered one with Dos Lunas reposado and my wife got one with silver Dos Lunas so we could compare.

There wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the two, although I could tell just a slight bit more of a “heavier” flavor to the Margarita with the reposado tequila. I’d need to taste the two tequilas straight to see if there is a significant different between them. Overall I wasn’t as happy with these Margaritas as I’d like. I’d probably give them about a 7.5. I’m really starting to lean towards a distinct fresh lime juice flavor, and I’m getting really particular if I’m served Margaritas that are clearly mix-based. If it is going to be a mix, it needs to be an exceptionally tasty mix. That is the blessing and curse of writing a Margarita blog, I guess!

During the week of the 4th of July, my family went to spend some time with friends at Lake Norfolk in Arkansas, just south of the Missouri border. It took about 5 hours to drive there from where we live and we were hungry when we finally arrived. There weren’t a whole lot of dining options in the area to choose from, so we decided to try out Colton’s Steak House and Grill. We just happened to see a handful of Colton’s restaurants on our trip down, so we were somewhat curious. It was obviously a chain, but I had never driven through southern Missouri before so it was new to me. From what I saw of the various Colton’s along the way, they seemed to have a “Texas” feel so I thought maybe there would be a small chance that it might have some Tex-Mex fare and perhaps a Margarita to match.

For a chain-style steak house, I must say that I liked Colton’s overall. The food was good, the restaurant had a fun atmosphere, it was clean, and the servers were attentive. I also got excited because their menu highlighted several different types of Margaritas. I tried their “Tombstone Rita”, which they claim is “Colton’s Signature Drink”. My expectations were tempered, however, because the description of the drink was, “a mix of Cuervo Gold tequila, Grand Marnier and Sweet & Sour”. I know Cuervo Gold is not 100% Agave and Sweet & Sour is not fresh lime juice. But I also know that there are some fairly tasty mixes out there so I hoped for the best.

Overall, the Tombstone Rita was very average. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t great. I could definitely tell it was made with a mix and it was a little too acidic. For that reason I rate it only a 6.5 out of 10.

My wife and I are foodies. Let’s just put that out there, in case you haven’t already figured it from reading this blog! In fact, my wife just started her own food blog recently, so please check it out! Being foodies we like to explore new places when we can. Niche restaurant in Clayton, MO is known as one of the top foodie spots in the St. Louis area. We had been wanting to try Niche for a long time but the timing was just never right. Luckily, things lined up and we were able to make reservations and finally see if Niche was worth the wait.

Niche definitely served some amazing food. From what we sampled that night, we can see why Niche has such a good reputation. The thing that made Niche stand apart from other restaurants was the uniqueness of the way the food was prepared. I would describe the presentation as being very ornamental at times, and I could tell the chefs were very skilled at combining interesting ingredients and flavors. However, I will say that based on the dishes we had that night, Niche was not necessarily better than our other favorites like The Crossing or Five Bistro. At some point we will try Niche again, but it won’t take us away from our usual favorites.

Of course, I tried a Margarita while I was at Niche. We were sitting close to the bar so I could see them making our drinks. My Margarita was made with Milagro tequila and I believe fresh lime juice. The flavor of the Margarita was very good, with the only real nitpick I have being that it was just slightly less sweet than I like. But overall, I give the Margarita at Niche an 8.

The “Elite” Margarita

We have some friends that live in a subdivision with a country club. They invited us out to dinner at “The Bistro” inside the country club and as usual, I wanted to sample a Margarita . They actually had two different types of Margaritas that the country club offered, so of course I needed to try both.

The first was called the “Elite” and was made with Patron tequila. Overall, it was a tasty Margarita. However, it did have a little bit of a bitter flavor up front and was a little more “fruity” flavored than I would normally like. So I give it a 7.5.

The glass may be curvy, but the Margarita is “skinny”

The country club also offered a “skinny” Margarita for those who are counting calories. The good news is that it was made with fresh lime juice, along with club soda. The bad news is that without much of a sweet component (as one would expect from a “skinny”) the lime flavor was overpowering. There wasn’t the balance of citrus and sweet flavors that a normal Margarita would have. But again, this is an attempt at a low-calorie Margarita so I can’t really knock it too much. However, I think they could probably add a low-calorie sweetener without really adding many calories. For a test, our friend had a packet of Truvia sweetener in her purse. Truvia is mostly made from Stevia, which is an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener. I mixed in the packet of Truvia into the “skinny” and that made all the difference in the world. The sweetness balanced the tartness of the lime juice and it was actually a very good Margarita after that. The “skinny” Margarita at the Sunset Hills Country Club is tricky to rate because it isn’t a normal Margarita. So I’ll refrain from a specific rating, but I’ll say that if you are after a normal Margarita, then you probably won’t like it unless you add some sweetener to it. However, if you really like lime juice and club soda and are watching your calories, then it’s worth a try.

Mission Taco narrowly missed being a stop on my recent Margarita Run. I’ve read many good reviews about the restaurant and the Margaritas they serve, so Mission Taco was on my short list. Since I couldn’t fit it in on the Margarita Run, I wanted to try Mission Taco as soon as I could and so for Father’s Day, off we went!

I wasn’t expecting the a la carte, family style method of serving tacos at Mission Taco, but I liked it. This allowed my family and I to sample many different flavors. The variety of tacos served was distinctive and they were all very good. If you are a taco connoisseur, you definitely need to stop by Mission Taco.

True to the reviews I had read, the Margarita I was served was very good. It had a nicely balanced flavor and was light and refreshing. The only nitpick I had was that there was a slight bitter taste up front. But overall I would give the Margarita an 8.

Yes, it’s a plastic cup, but it is a baseball game.

They serve Margaritas at a baseball game? Why, yes. At least in the party suites at Busch Stadium in St. Louis they do. I was lucky enough to get invited to a friend’s 50th birthday party which happened to be in a party suite at Busch Stadium. As it turned out, it was the last game of a 3-game interleague series between the Cardinals and the Yankees. To boot, this was to be the last game that Derek Jeter would play in St. Louis (assuming the Yankees and Cardinals don’t meet in the World Series). However, the Yankees chose not to play Derek Jeter that game. WTF, Yankees? Thanks a lot.

Oh well, at least I got to try a Margarita at the ballpark. Of course, I wasn’t expecting much, given that beer is the traditional drink at baseball games. That and the menu specified that a mix was used for the Margarita. However, the menu also stated that they used Camarena tequila, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites. All that being said, the flavor of the Margarita, while not exactly top quality, was actually pretty tasty for a mix. Overall, I give the Margarita at Busch Stadium a 7.

By the way, here is my daughter singing a song about the St. Louis Cardinals!

After a Margarita-soaked weekend, some people wondered if I would be able to drink another Margarita any time soon. Fools! I will sample a Margarita any place, any time. Especially the day before my birthday.

I went for lunch with my wife and some friends to Jimmy’s on the Park Café in Clayton, MO. If I recall correctly, I had a tomato bisque soup to start – along with a Margarita of course. The tomato bisque soup was very flavorful and tasty. The Margarita was tasty, but not top-notch. While I like citrus flavor, the initial taste hit with this Margarita was a “hard” tart. In other words, too much bite to the citrus instead of a balanced flavor. There was a nice aroma of lime when bringing up the glass to drink, but there was a slight hint of mix flavor when actually consuming the Margarita. So overall, I give it a 7.5, which is good but not great. However, I really enjoyed the overall meal at Jimmy’s and I will definitely be back at some point in the future.