Billionaire Margarita - Fred's Mexican Cafe - Huntington Beach, CA

Fred's is one of our favorite Southern California Mexican cantinas and we've been to several of their locations including San Diego Old Town and Gas Lamp District.  So naturally, the Huntington Beach location was a must-do on our Long Beach Margarita Tour - even if it was about 20 minutes south.  But what the heck, when someone else is doing the driving, you can go where ever you want.

We love Fred's but to be honest with you it has one very distinctive problem - TOO MANY MARGARITA choices!  The blasted menu lists 13 (that's lucky 13) flavors of margarita madness... whatever happened to traditional on-the-rocks or frozen????  The first ones to catch my attention were the Cabo Rita and Wabo Rita, as I just happen to be a big fan of cabo wabo tequila, but I was instructed to keep focused on other brands of tequila and new flavors of margarita in order to expand my cultural experiences.

After some spirited debate with the rest of the group I settled on the Billionaire Margarita made with Gran Centenario and a float of Grand Marnier.  Excellent choice!  It worked its magic.

So it was another great trip to Fred's Mexican Cantina!  And the Huntington Beach location is just across the street from the beach, which leads to all kinds of other possibilities... but we will leave that subject alone.  BTW - the food is decent as well, and Taco Tuesday is a Fred's tradition that is worth partaking of.

We can give the Billionaire Margarita a three limer without a doubt - maybe more of a 3.5, but that's not one of the categories, so we will stick with three. (Lately I have been accused of handing out too many four limer awards...)

Spirited Margaritas For The Super Bowl

Might as well use your Margaritas to show some team spirit for the Super Bowl.  On the left we have a mango margarita composed of blanco tequila, a bit of triple sec and a dash of grand marnier teamed up with some black (ok - almost black) chips. 

Opposing this Steeler lineup, we have the Green Bay response - a traditional margarita with anejo tequila, and a dash of grand marnier, aligned with yellow chips.  And on the sidelines there is plenty of salsa and queso to keep the game alive!

Yeah we know, the colors are not exact... but what the heck, the glasses will be empty soon, regardless of how the game goes.

Cadillac Margarita - Panama Joes - Long Beach, CA

So our second stop on our Long Beach Margarita Tour was Panama Joe's, which is actually over in Belmont Shores.  This is a great little mexican cantina that we discovered several years ago while in Long Beach for a trade show.  We now make it a point to drop in everytime we are in the area.  The place rocks in the way of food and drink, plus they got a jammin bar area and the whole place transforms into a club as the night goes on.

On the last visit we did pitchers of frozen strawberry margaritas.  This time we decided to explore the drink menu and decided on a scientific approach... we asked the waiter for his recommendation of the best margarita.  Can't go wrong with that!  Without hesitation he recommended the Cadillac Margarita, so we said "lets do it!"   And do it we did.  Great drink, but I don't remember what all went into it, just that it was good.  And several glasses later it was still darn good - whatever it was.

So another successful trip to Panama Joe's!  BTW we had dinner as well, as they have great food too.  If you are in Long Beach, CA, be sure to get over to Panama Joe's in Belmont Shores, you won't regret it.

The Cadillac Margarita was definitely a great drink, somewhere between 3.5 and 4 limes.  But since we really like the place, we ranked it as a 4.