A Mini Cantina Bar Crawl For National Margarita Day
It was National Margarita Day on Feb. 22, and I wanted, well, a margarita.
So I walked out the door to what I thought was a no-brainer place to celebrate: Margaritaville. Good plan, right?! Sit at the bar, watch Jimmy Buffett videos, listen to some Buffett tunes and — if I so choosed to do – get wasted away in Margaritaville.
Well, things did not exactly work out that way. For starters, the San Diego Gaslamp Margaritaville plays neither Buffett videos or music. Instead, on the TVs, you get ESPN. When I asked a manager about this on one visit, he said “if we played it all the time the staff would get sick of it.” I felt like saying “well then don’t work at freakin’ Margaritaville!”
But I politely restained myself and was excited to be there on National Margarita Day. I headed up to the 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar by the pool, which kindly has Happy Hour 7 days a week until 7 p.m. That’s like finding a piece of gold in the otherwise expensive Gaslamp Quarter.
So, instead of “tossing out my anchor” as Buffett sang in a song, I suddenly found myself at the “Port of Indecision.” The margarita was “9 dollars and change” the bartender informed me. Yes, during Happy Hour. It was about the size of a shot with liquid in it, so I was forced to call an audible and seek out other National Margarita Day alternatives. Fortunately, there are many options in the Gaslamp Quarter.
I hit three places, all during Happy Hour, and here’s my quickie review of them.
- Margaritaville Resort San Diego Gaslamp
Had the bar been showing Buffett concert videos with Parrotheads going crazy not on Caroline Street but in the parking lots, then I would have stayed a while. Tho I would have switched to the $6 Happy Hour beers. The tiny margarita wasn’t really very good so I pulled up the mainsail and went to barleymash. Tab price with tip: $11
- barleymash
This is the “go-to” bar in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. It’s location is prime space, 5th & Market. When other bars are slow, this place is always cranking. It had three special margarits for the occasion tho the signs about it were not just vague but non-existent. I asked for a margarita and got a tall one. I could tell within two sips it had more tequila than the tiny one at Margaritaville. A dude next to me said he had one of the special margaritas (which the bartender did not mentioned to me, a bit odd becuase it’s a well-trained staff) who described it as “really good, but pricey.” I noticed he was driking something else at the time. Tab price with tip: $11.50
- Katrina’s Cantina
I left barleymash shortly after 5:30 p.m., and headed a couple blocks up Fifth Ave., to Katrina’s Cantina. This is a beautful bar that has Happy Hour until 6 p.m. I got the house margarita — something I always do everywhere because it is an excellent indicator of what kind of margis the place serves – and, well, it took me some taste bud adjustments to figure out exactly what it was I was drinking. Because it did not taste quite like a margarita. I then realized they use the fairly tasteless El Jimador tequila for the house margaritas and decided it was not very good.
Tab price with tip: $10
Conclusion
The best margarita I had among the three was barleymash, tho it was hardly the best margi I’ve ever had in my life. Not even close, in fact. Still, it had enough tequila to provide a plesant buzz.
All told, I spent $32.50 for three margaritas, which is not a king’s randsome to be sure, but is not insignificant, either. Especially during Happy Hour. Did I meet any girls? Nope. Did I meet any interesting people? No. Did I have a great time? Not really.
So was it worth it? Well, I got a good column out of it and to a journalist, that’s always a positive.
Kevin Wilkerson is a travel and nightlife blogger who publishes PubClub.com
