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Mariano's restaurant
in Old Town was where I realized I was dating "the wrong guy."
Somewhere between margarita #1 and 3 a light went off telling me that
it was time to say Adios! Well, hello La Hacienda Ranch and hello to
the man that is my husband of 11 years,thanks to Marianos and an evening
that changed the rest of my life. Me making a scene isn't quite as explosive as throwing a Mariano's frozen margarita in someone's face. It's subtler than that. I simply state my order, "jalapeños fresco -- sin vinagre -- crudo -- natural -- picados, gracias." I've placed this order in some form of Spanish at many other Mexican restaurants, but never has the reaction been quite like I received at Mariano's Downtown Dallas location. Following my initial visit and request, I never had to state my specialized request again. The cook recognized me and remembered my special order. Moreover, the cook even remembered that I faithfully ordered the very same plate, Chalupas de Trevino, on my once-a-week visit, so I no longer had to verbally give my order. This may not seem like the funniest story, but it really was the funniest thing to witness. Those around me would often get confused, because I had said nothing. Was it their turn to order, had I been wrongly bypassed, was my hearing impaired, or was I on an extremely strict diet? My coworkers or I would begin explaining or reassuring them that it was in fact their turn. Now the joke's on
me, because I'm once again left to fumble. But this time it's not for
the words to place my special order, it's in recalling the memories
of that special place with its extraordinary employees. When my husband and I moved to Dallas in 1999 we didn't know anyone or our surroundings. We took an apartment in the Village on Southwestern in August of that year. After a whole day of unpacking I didn't feel like cooking. We decided to go out for dinner, but the question was where? At the time we didn't have a car so we started walking around the neighborhood. After 20 minutes of walking around we heard Spanish music coming from a building. I started dancing in the street, while we tried to find where the music was coming from. We stumbled upon Mariano's and decided to give it a shot. Since then we have been regular customers there. Even after we moved we continued to have our weekend dinners at Mariano's. In the four years we have celebrated our wedding, our first anniversary, my birthday, his birthday...well you get it. Some
of the evening staff knew us by face. Although we never got his
name the bartender made the best drinks. I am sad to see Mariano's
move and do a name change, but I understand business is business.
Thank
you Mariano's for all the wonderful memories and excellent food and
service. On one of my first
dates with my husband he took me to Mariano's. Thanks for the
fun memory. My husband always reminds me of that day when he sees
carrots. In the late 70's
a large group of teachers came on a Friday afternoon for "Happy
Hour". Since it was such a large group and we were all in a hurry
for our Margarits and Chips and hot sauce, we thought if we tipped
our waiter we would get faster service. We tipped the waiter and he
left and was gone for about 5 or 10 minutes and finally came back
with another water ( who spoke better english I guess ) anyway the
other waiter said "I'M sorry, but he didn't understand what kind
of cigarettes you all wanted. We all got a big laugh out of it and
went on to have a very wonderful "Happy Hour" as we did
many, many Friday afternoons. Have lots of found memories of this
place - sorry to see it go, but will look forward to visiting the
new place. Thanks I was there in 1971 when the legend started "frozen margarita's and tequila shooters! At least I think I was. After so many margaritas and shooters - who knows. I used to meet my 2nd husband there for romantic dinners and of course drinks - he's gone now...no, no, not dead, we're just divorced, but I still come to Mariano's. I used to meet many friends there for drinks, and still do, only now its more food than drinks. Margarita's yes - shooters, a little risky! After all I only have one good knee left.....no more falling down! One night I left there after a long happy hour, held up between two male companions and we all fell down...and these were the days before 'designated drivers'. When I need a Mexican food and drinks fix, I think of Mariano's in Old Town. Ah the memories, the food the drinks, and the drinks and...well you get the drift. I will miss you
when you are gone, but will drive all the way out there to see ya'll
again. I was there with a group of my girlfriends and we were loud and having a great time looking at pictures from a previous bridal shower. We were all drinking your wonderful frozen margaritas, waiting for our meal and not noticing anything going on around us. My friend Lisa turned to me and said, "the fajitas must be really good tonight - smell the smoke". We looked around and found that nobody was left in the restaurant - everybody was outside. There was a small fire in the kitchen and the smoke we thought was fajitas was from the kitchen fire. We were having so much fun looking at pictures, drinking our frozen margaritzas we never noticed everyone leaving the restaurant and going outside!! We moved our party to the patio and never saw our waiter again. We wondered where he went and why he didn't try to save us poor fools! What a fun time we had that night. We stayed for hours and ran up quite a bill. We have spent
so many wonderful evenings at Mariano's. It was my mothers favorite
Mexican restaurant. She passed away in 1977. We'll miss you! |