The World's First Frozen Margarita Machine - Arlington, TX - Preserved Machines on Public Display on Waymarking.com

This is the flagship of Mariano Martínez's restaurants, one of two Mariano's Haciendas along with four La Hacienda Ranches. Martínez opened the original location in 1971 on Greenville Avenue at the Old Town Center, but in 2003, the landlord shifted gears and decided to go with more box stores and chains. His loss is Arlington's gain. When the restaurant first opened, its frozen margaritas were of varying consistency, so after drawing inspiration from a 7-Eleven Slurpee machine one morning, Martínez set to work modifying a soft-serve ice cream machine. You can see his original frozen margarita machine behind the hostess stand before you enjoy outstanding food and service. There is no indication as to when it first went on display, but it was there at the door to greet you well back into the 1990s at the Old Town location.

There are three notable signs here. The first is outside, with its twin inside, next to the machine, and it reads:

The World's First Frozen Margarita

...was drawn using a fabulous new invention ... Mariano's Frozen Margarita Machine

The winning combination of heritage and technology took two parts of the past and one of the present. The first year, Mariano's in Old Town served 36,000 gallons of Margaritas.

¡Viva Texas! ¡Viva Margaritas!
¡Viva Mariano!

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The second sign is attached to the machine itself, reading "The World's First Frozen Margarita Machine", over "Mariano's". There are two smaller signs underneath the machine, reading "Invented May 11, 1971" (which you can also see inside the State of Texas on the two other signs) and "Inducted in the Smithsonian October 2005".

The third sign is near the entrance to the Cantina, and it has a vintage photo of Mariano Martínez working his invention. At the bottom of the sign are the emblems of his two restaurants, Mariano's Hacienda and La Hacienda Ranch, along with the margarita named for him, The Mariano. Below "Mariano" and "The Man and His Machine" is:

In 1971, Mariano Martínez, a Mexican-American high school dropout, turned entrepreneur, imagined a unique Mexican restaurant concept which he opened with $500 and an SBA loan. The restaurant was so popular that Mariano had to reimagine how to keep up with the demand for blended margaritas. This led to his invention of the Frozen Margarita Machine, which is such a part of our culture that it now resides in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Mariano's imagination is still evolving our margaritas to this day. He recently created our handcrafted margarita on the rocks collection.

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Right across the way is a portrait of Mr. Martínez, "The Margarita Revolutionist", captioned "Evolving the Margarita Since 1971". He stands in a serious pose, clad as someone would have dressed during La Revolución in the 19teens.

Type of Machine: Frozen Margarita Machine Year the machine was built: 1971 Year the machine was put on display: Unknown Is there online documentation for this machine: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   04/14/2022 QuesterMark visited it