In the last month, I have found occasion to dine twice at one of my favorite restaurants—Mad Mex on Atwood street in Oakland.

Atwood Street

I say "to dine" because I have also been there recently for drinks; half-priced margaritas at happy hour make it a fantastic place to meet friends for booze in Oakland. The margaritas, however, are mighty potent and the time I went to Mad Mex for margaritas exclusively, I ended on a two hour, two bus odyssey back home to my apartment. The frozen margaritas are so potent (yes, frozen, we're not even talking "straight up" here) that after drinking three small margaritas over four hours at the restaurant, I was still drunk after the two hour bus ride home.

Mad Mex on Atwood

And so, when I went with Davin to Mad Mex a few weeks ago, I resolved to drink less and eat more. Still, a trip to Mad Mex is ludicrous without a margarita, so we made it a point to show up for happy hour, which runs from 4:30 to 6:30 Monday through Friday. Happy Hour at Mad Mex in Oakland consists of the following drink specials: $6 for 22 oz. margaritas—affectionately titled the "Big Azz Margarita"—1/2 off 16 oz. and 12 oz. house margaritas, and 1/2 off drafts. Also 1/2 off wings, but I'm not so much a wing person. Davin got a 22 oz. traditional lime margarita on the rocks—being something of a margarita snob—and I got the 22 oz. frozen mango margarita—which, after stealing a sip, Davin admitted was actually pretty good and he ended up ordering a small one after finishing his "on the rocks" margarita. The great thing about most Mad Mex frozen margaritas is that they are made from fresh ingredients and as a result aren't too sweet. The strawberry ones are a little sweet for my taste, but the mango, kiwi, lime and raspberry are nicely tart. For an appetizer we got the guacamole, which is always chunky and fresh, with chips and salsa. The guacamole comes with a choice of salsa, and we picked the pico de gallo. It turned out to be rather strange with too-large chunks of tomato, not at all good for eating with chips. Our meals were quite delicious though—Davin got the fajita enchilada and I got the 3-cheese 3-pepper enchilada. I was warned by the waitress that the 3/3 enchilada was rather hot, and this may or may not be true, but it certainly wasn't too hot for me. I ended up dousing it with green hot sauce for a truly delicious and spicy treat, especially since one of the three cheeses was goat cheese. I do love most anything with goat cheese. Davin was pleased with his enchilada as well, though with the caveat that Pittsburgh Mexican and Tex-Mex is simply not in the same league as what one gets in the south west, the part of the country from whence Davin hails (no wonder he's such a margarita snob).

A Matthew Stover Margarita in a Lenox Tuscany Martini Glass

By the time we finished our meals, Happy Hour had expired and we decided to leave with what remained of our sobriety. Not wanting to "call it a night" so early (the unfortunate potential consequence of arriving to dinner in time for Happy Hour), we decided to stop off at the liquor store. Davin's inclinations as a scotch aficionado led him toward the whiskies, but I suggested that we might better continue our agave kick by getting a bottle of Sauza and mixing up one of my favorite drink recipes—the Matthew Stover margarita. Matthew Stover is among my favorite contemporary SF&F; authors, having penned such innovative and crazy fun novels as Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle; but it turns out he's also an experienced bartender and after he posted his margarita recipe (included below) on the Frameshift forums—a recipe very much like the one I use, only classier—I knew he was indeed the mixology master he claimed to be. So after a stop at the liquor store and then to Giant Eagle for lemons and limes, we eliminated the remainder of our sobriety.

Neilbert at Mad Mex

I ended up at Mad Mex yet again with Neilbert on Star Trek night last week. After having taken my mom to Eleven, Neilbert still had the better part of a Big Burrito gift card, and so I talked him into dinner at Mad Mex. We arrived at the tail end of Happy Hour, and so I recommended getting the $6 Big Azz frozen margaritas so to last us throughout the meal. True to form, I got a mango margarita and Neilbert got raspberry. Neilbert found his margarita quite enjoyable, though he observed that drinking it too fast resulted in a "frozen margarita headache." For dinner, Neilbert got the Kristy's Big Sister's Red Velvet Enchilada, which includes chicken, spinach, zucchini and cheese. I got the Mad Mex burrito with steak in a whole wheat tortilla. Neilbert much enjoyed his enchilada and fixin's, crediting his selection of red Ancho sauce over green Jalapeno sauce with ensuring that his dinner was not too hot. He enjoyed it so much that he cleaned his plate; lest he give the enchilada too much credit he qualified the voraciousness of his appetite with fact that he'd had a small lunch.

Neilbert at the former apartment of Neilbert

I also enjoyed my burrito, complete with an amalgam of guacamole, salsa, sour cream, green hot sauce and whatever sauce they use to draw the Mad Mex cactus on top. The steak pieces were predictably well-done, but still tender and not-too-tough. The rice was a little under-done, and when I asked Neilbert, he reported that his was also a little crunchy. Even after finishing our meals, we still had about a third of our Big Azz margaritas, and so sat around for another fifteen minutes while we finished them. In effort to sober up in the hopes that neither of us would fall asleep during Star Trek (an endeavor in which I ultimately failed), we took a walk up Atwood street to visit Neilbert's old apartment building. As a young civil engineering student in the 1960's, Neilbert transferred down to Pitt Main Campus after two years at Pitt Bradford. For one year, he lived in and hated the dorms, and so for his second year Neilbert—like many generations Pitt Students before and after his time—found some roommates and procured an apartment in South Oakland.

The window air conditioner at the former apartment of Neilbert

Standing outside Neilbert's old digs, he found it largely the same, except for the window air-conditioner, a luxury that college students did without in the rustic days of yore. They also apparently did without luxuries such as Mad Mex Happy Hour—Neilbert reports that there weren't any restaurants or bars on Atwood street during the days of his youth.

In sum, Mad Mex food is pretty damned good—for Pittsburgh; you should read Matthew Stover novels and try his margarita recipe; and in Neilbert's day, college students had to walk five miles in the snow for a good happy hour.

Looking for a margarita as hardcore as Caine?

Matthew Stover Margaritas

2 ounces of Sauza Hornitos
3/4 ounce of Cointreau
juice of one quarter of a fresh lime
juice of one quarter of a fresh lemon

Shake with ice and serve. And on the issue of salt, Matthew Stover says, and I quote: "You don't need the salt unless you're using cheap shit." I would go further to say that this is definitely not the margarita where you want to use cheap tequila. I often opt for a slightly cheaper alternative with Sauza Blanco, and I have to confess (this is why Matthew Stover's recipe is classier) I always use the cheapest triple sec—i.e. generic Cointreau—in the liquor store, but these margaritas are still mighty tasty even with the less expensive substitutions. Since these margs are heavy on the booze, I like to serve them straight up in a chilled martini glass. To chill a martini glass, either stand it in the freezer for about ten minutes, or fill it with crushed ice while you mix your drink, and then dump out the ice before straining your drink into the glass. Garnish with a wheel or twist of lime for added presentation value.