Serving frozen margaritas and mesquite grilled fajitas

The tale of the first frozen margarita machine is a Texas legend, and the man that brought the classic beverage to new heights, Mariano Martinez, has been offering the frozen adult treat in Colleyville for 17 years at the La Hacienda Ranch restaurant.

"He intended the machine back in 1971 pretty much out of necessity," General Manager Jeff Lowery said. "If you know Mariano, you know he solves problems."

Back in the early 1970s, Martinez was not happy with the taste and consistency of blender-made frozen margaritas along with the time it took to make them. So after "many sleepless nights," he said that he picked up a coffee at a 7-Eleven convenience store and had an epiphany while watching the Slurpee machine spin.

After days of tinkering with an old soft-serve ice cream machine and modifying his father's margarita recipe, he created the very first frozen margarita machine.

As the Martinez's family of restaurants have expanded throughout the years, margaritas have remained a cornerstone of each location.

"We're on track to serve a record amount of margaritas this year," Lowery said citing internal computer tracking numbers. "So far this year we have sold 54,245 margaritas [in Colleyville] while the entire company has sold about 308,000."

With about two months left in the year, Lowery said he is confident that his store can sell about 11,600 more margaritas to beat his 2013 number of 65,913. As a whole, the company sold 365,095 margaritas in 2013.

The Colleyville store has six frozen margarita machines on-site offering its original lime ($9) and "skinny" ($11) flavors in addition to its handcrafted margaritas such as the signature Mariano Margarita ($14), the Fire & Ice ($11), which is flavored with muddled jalapeos, and the Papa's Original ($11), the exact margarita recipe used by Martinez's father.

While the tale of how the machine was created is legendary, the machine itself is history: in October 2005 the original machine was inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

"Our biggest draw is the fajitas," Lowery said. "Each piece of steak is mesquite-grilled over real logs. That gives it a real unique flavor."

While the beef fajitas are the most popular item, some new additions are poised to make their mark.

Traditionally offered in steak restaurants, La Hacienda now offers the Surf n' Turf, a dish that includes a 7-ounce butterflied sirloin paired with three bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with cojita cheese and jalapeno, rice and a guacamole-covered tostada ($27).

"[Martinez] wanted to open a restaurant where teachers, construction workers, lawyers and doctors could all go together and fit in," Lowery said. "We want to give people choices."

According to Lowery, with entrees from catfish, brisket tacos to hamburgers, there is a little something for everyone on the menu.

To help focus in on an intimate and fun dining experience, La Hacienda Ranch is exploring the option of expanding its patio area.

"He has a great vision: now he is trying to focus in on the millenials. They are really big into patios, [for] the ambience, so one of his ideas is to add onto the patio," Lowery said. "If Martinez does it, it's going to be done right. We have all these trees and want to create a feeling of you're not right on SH 121. It will be a place where you can relax and have a margarita."

La Hacienda Ranch, 5250 SH 121, Colleyville, 817-318-7500, www.laharanch.com, Twitter: @lahaciendaranch

Hours: Sun.-Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.