For National Margarita Day, my dear friend Laura Jane and I decided we wanted to do our own Margarita Crawl around town sampling the finest margaritas our town has to offer. While we originally planned on hitting a lot more stops, time got away from us, tequila sat in, and we only made it to 5 places (we also didn’t start until 4:30 pm!)
Laura and I were both working Friday, so we had to wait til late afternoon to get our start. I did close 30 mins early....sorry guys, but it was for the sake of science and research purposes. I did serve margaritas throughout the day to our customers, and while they were certainly not gourmet (hello, from a box) they were quite enjoyable...
So if you plan on doing your own Rockport Margarita Crawl, start early. Start drinking at noon. Our town has so many wonderful restaurants & bars, and I’m sad we weren’t able to get them all in one evening! We’ll just have to try again with a margarita crawl part 2, and there will definitely be a part two.
Stop #1—the newbie in town La Tequila Jalisco.
Just recently opened Mexican restaurant with an assortment of classic & Tex Mex dishes. Laura and I opted for house margaritas on the rocks.
They were quite tart, but extremely tasty. Out of all the margaritas we had, we felt La Tequila's was the strongest. We could definitely taste the tequila (I mean it IS the name of the restaurant) We ended up having two each since they were on special for National Margarita Day and meanwhile met up with our friend Kelly and my husband Jonathan.
Stop #2-fan favorite Los Comales
We sat in the bar area and ordered classic house margaritas on the rocks.
What can I say about Los Comales? It’s my go-to especially on rainy days (or bad days. Or good days. All the days, really) My normal limit on Los Comales margs is 2. I’ve never been to Los Comales already two drinks in, so having 1 had me feeling pretty darn fine...and so did the happy hour prices.
Stop #3—the most unique of the bunch-495 Chesapeake Eats.
We snacked on chips & salsa previously, but saved our appetites for here. The food, ya’ll. Omg. We feasted like seafood loving kings. But let’s talk drinks—We all ordered different cocktails with me being the only marg- the caprese margarita. Tomatoes? Mozzarella? In my marg?! I'm not sure how they came about with this combination, but it worked and it worked so well. The flavors were incredible! You honestly can't go wrong with any of the craft cocktails on their menu, we passed our drinks around the table to share and we all enjoyed each one. We did the same with our meals, sampling off of each other's plates. So SO good.
Okay, so we knew Janelle Shetters was playing from 5-8 and we honestly thought we’d be close to done and would end the evening listening to Janelle and Sugar Shack being our last stop. It was after 7:30 when we left 495, so headed straight to the Shack to catch the end of Janelle’s set. I’m so glad we did! Her crew of family friends welcomed us as always and Janelle’s performance never disappoints.
We made it in time for some Styx, Elvis, and even a duet from Grease. I had a margarita of course, and it was quite tasty. I can’t remember the last time I’d ever ordered a margarita at the Sugar Shack, but I may have to more often now. This of course was our favorite atmosphere--anytime Janelle performs it's a party!
I’m so glad we ended the night here! Cheryl’s has always been one of my favorite places. I adore the atmosphere, just something about sitting under all of those Christmas lights puts me in the best of moods.
The flavorful margarita list helps too. I opted for my favorite-carmelized pineapple and Laura ordered the blood orange. Other flavors include strawberry basil, prickly pear, and several other interesting combinations.
Both were delish, as expected. The carmelized pineapple is like a tasty dessert. If we had started at Cheryl’s, I probably would have never made it anywhere else. Cheryl’s just has the effect on you (or is it the drinks?) it’s just so cozy, you want to curl up on one of the antique couches she has up front and just stay all night.
