Scott MitchellScenes From Sunday's Margarita Meltdown in Bishop Arts.
We learned two things at Sunday's Margarita Meltdown event in Bishop Arts District.
The first: When enough people who've been drinking for two or more hours gather together, the Wobble suddenly becomes a good song.
The second: Getting to taste-test dozens of Margaritas will bring out slews of people, constant drizzling rains be damned.
Perhaps in spite of, the weather, the Dallas Margarita Meltdown commanded surprisingly large crowds, packing out Bishop Avenue. And it was a solid time, too. With 35 different restaurants and bars slinging out shot-sized samples of their takes on the Dallas-bred margarita — be on the rocks, frozen, poured over a snow cone or even oddly milky in consistency — people could get plenty buzzed off of that alone.
Add in some good ol' Budweiser, and you got yourself a party.
So, with music glaring through speakers, attendees were happy to dish out the required $30 to get into the affair. Then? Well, they just bounced from tent to tent, sometimes waiting in agonizingly long lines to get a taste of a specialty Margarita.
Luckily, there were things to do between the monotonous waits: You could pick up a Día de Muertos paper skull on a stick and fan yourself through the humidity or go get your grind on with some tipsy dancer out in the street while a song that was popular a couple of years ago played on. And, if anyone drank a little too much too fast, there were tacos and food truck goods on hand to help absorb that tequila baby growing in their stomachs.
My personal favorite part? Besides the copious amounts of booze? The hand-rolled cigars being sold. They made for the perfect way to cap off the evening of drinking.
And a fun evening it was. Well, for the attendees, at least. For the restaurants on hand, it was a competition. As such, attendees were coaxed through various means to text the name of the restaurant that made their favorite margarita to a specified number and cast a vote.
The winner of this people's choice award? Asador, which had one of the more eye-catching tents of the event. Sure, they served a mean margarita, but add in copious amount of leis, tequila waterfalls and a guy assuring anyone who voted for them that they will get “laid” (or is “leid” the proper spelling?), and it’s not too surprising they won. I mean, the rest of the tents just had pretty women in bikini tops slinging drinks. After the fifth or so tent doing that, it got a little repetitive.
Not that we're complaining.
I mean, who doesn't like a block party featuring booze, scantily clad revelers and loud music?
