The Best Margaritas in San Francisco

Updated: February 24, 2026

On National Margarita Day San Franciscans Have a Lot to Celebrate

National Margarita Day takes place on Sunday, February 22 in 2026. While putting together this list of spots to enjoy this timeless cocktail, it brings back many pleasant (and a few unpleasant) memories of going out drinking in my college years. As a professional bartender and food writer, I find it fascinating how the Margarita adapts to the drinking culture of any era, maintaining its status as one of the most widely called for and beloved cocktails of all time.

While I don’t remember my first Margarita, I assure you it was the sweet lime slushy variety, prepared with inexpensive mixto tequila, Cuervo Gold or the well equivalent, and a thick salt rim coating both the inside and outside of the plastic cup it was served in. Nobody asked if I wanted it up, on the rocks, or frozen, and the lime garnish was probably cut days earlier and starting to turn brown. There was no Yelp or social media. I was likely at a bar that didn’t card, and there was no sending things back. We didn’t think like that back then anyway. We downed those mixto lime slushes like champions and often didn’t quit until somebody puked. The next morning, we’d eat a bagel, drink some coffee, take an afternoon nap, and head out to do it again.

Pouring Margaritas | Tsuguliev/Shutterstock

We spent many nights at frat parties back in the tri state area in the 90’s. The common beverage offerings were kegs of Milwaukees Best Beer (“The Beast”), some inexplicable concoction known simply as “Jungle Juice” (often red in color and served from a plastic vat in the bathroom) that never tasted the same twice, and, at some of the better frat houses, margaritas made from store bought mix and cheap ass tequila, sans days old lime wedge. To this day, I look back on those Fern Bar Era Margaritas and smile. There are so many good memories. They tasted delicious back then, even if we know better today.

Recently I noticed that bars and restaurants with spirits lists have included an “agave” section in recent years. It is not uncommon for Gen Z to ask a bartender questions about the agave selection at any given bar or restaurant. I started wondering how we went from a time where mixto tequila was the commonly poured tequila at any given bar or restaurant to a world where those coming of age have enough knowledge to ask about the agave selection when ordering a Margarita. I have come to the conclusion that it all began right here in San Francisco.

Two Margaritas with Lime and Salt | Charles Brutlag/Shutterstock

Table of Contents

Margarita History

The Margarita itself was invented sometime in the 1930s or 40s in a bar somewhere near the American Mexican border. There are several origin stories about the history of the Margarita, but the truth is lost in time. What we do know is that by the 1950s the Margarita was a well known cocktail globally, and prior to the Fern Bar Era it was made with fresh lime juice.

Around the time that the Margarita was invented, a couple from Oxkutzcab, Yucatán, Mexico, Tomas “Tommy” and Elmy Bermejo, immigrated to the United States. Tommy was able to come to the US as a bracero (guest farmworker) under the US Mexico agricultural program. In 1959 they had a son, Julio. In 1965, they had saved enough money to open a small Mexican restaurant in San Francisco. By the time Julio was 7 or 8, he started working in the family restaurant.

When Julio was in his 20s he began running the bar at Tommy’s. In his early drinking years he had experienced his share of hangovers and bad booze. He also made an interesting observation about tequila. When he drank Herradura, a brand made from 100 percent Blue Agave, he was less likely to suffer the pain of a hangover. His parents’ restaurant, which had had a liquor license since the 1970s, was serving the typical lime slush style Margaritas that were in vogue at the time. Julio soon decided to make a change. The first change was only serving 100 percent Blue Agave tequila in the house Margarita. His parents had done away with the triple sec years prior and replaced it with simple syrup. Julio replaced simple syrup with agave sweetener, something uncommon at the time. He also replaced the commercial, sugary Margarita mix with fresh lime. The ingredients were more expensive, but Julio wanted to make a great drink to keep Tommy’s customers coming back. They were a small family business, way out in the Richmond District. They relied on repeat neighborhood clientele. Julio wanted to ensure that people would keep coming back. At the time, Julio had no idea how much his tweaks to the house Margarita at his parents’ restaurant would impact the modern cocktail movement.

Julio learned everything he could about agave spirits. He traveled to Mexico on many occasions to learn more and visit distilleries. He eventually had 110 brands of high quality tequila on the menu at Tommy’s. He became an expert on tequila and mezcals. Soon the house Margarita at this family owned Mexican food joint would be known across the globe.

Sometime in the mid 1990s, a twist of fate put Tommy’s Margarita on the world’s radar. The exact dates are a little murky. Sometime between 1989 and 1990 Julio improved the house Margarita at the restaurant. Then, in 1995 or 1996, a neighborhood regular brought her boyfriend in for dinner. The boyfriend’s name was Tony Abou-Ganim.

Tony was one of San Francisco’s well respected bartenders. He had worked at well known spots like the Fairmont. When he met Julio, he was back in San Francisco after a short stint in New York. He had returned to take the lead bartender position at Harry Denton’s Starlite Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. While there he would invent the Cable Car Cocktail and eventually move to Vegas to consult on bar programs along the Strip.

Tony walked into the humble Outer Richmond restaurant and immediately noticed the bar was lined with regulars drinking Tommy’s House Margarita with one hand and sipping 100 percent blue agave tequilas in the other. He was fascinated. After a couple sips of the house Margarita he understood why. He told many people about the Margarita at Tommy’s and when he went to run the beverage program at the Bellagio in Vegas, he had Julio come along to consult on tequila. Julio had become a tequila expert while running his parents bar. Soon Julio and his Margarita were featured in the local San Francisco press and bartenders who liked his recipe started using it at their bars. Notably, Dominic Venegas put it on the menu at Bacar in 2001.

The house Margarita from Tommy’s would soon be known worldwide as “Tommy’s Margarita” and reach Modern Classic status because of a second twist of fate. Julio would be invited by Mexican President Vicente Fox and Mexican Tequila distillers to go to the UK and France to meet with top bartenders. In his role as a tequila liaison, Julio hosted some of the bartenders back home at Tommy’s in San Francisco. He also invited some to Mexico on tequila distillery tours. During this time he met British Cocktail Legends Dre Masso and Henry Bessant. The duo fell in love with his house Margarita and served it at a Mexican Restaurant and Tequila Bar they opened in London called “Green and Red”. In 2005 they co-authored a book called “Margarita Rocks”, where the drink was officially called the Tommy’s Margarita in print. In 2008, the International Bartenders Association deemed the Tommy’s Margarita a modern classic. Today it is found on menus all over the nation and the globe.

Over the pandemic, I returned to the tristate area and worked at a number of bars in Philadelphia. Spots where I had once downed sugary, mixto laced, lime slushes now were offering the Tommy’s Margarita.

Here are 8 spots in San Francisco we highly recommend ordering a Margarita on National Margarita Day. And trust us, tell em’ to make it a “Tommy’s”: