Five is an important number in the nightlife equation.
5 p.m. is when happy hour starts, though you know the saying — “It’s always “5 o’clock somewhere.” And the 5th (of May) is the day Americans adopt the popular Mexican holiday as their own and celebrate it as an excuse to drink tequila.
But for me, the number five is superiorly significant in my nightlife equation … because that’s how old I was the first time I got drunk. That’s right, 5.
It was Cinco de Mayo on my cinco year of life, and my parents and their friends went to the only Mexican restaurant in our hometown for a little fiesta. They all ordered different flavored margaritas, which I thought were slurpees. Rebelling against the fact they wouldn’t let me have an “adult slurpee,” I ran around the table sneaking sips from everyone’s glasses. Before dinner was over, I was laying under the table, curled up in the fetal position with a napkin over my head, moaning.
The same thing happens to me now when I drink tequila.
But cinco isn’t just for Mayo anymore. Just like it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, every day can be a Cinco de Drinko (Drink at 5) holiday.
Cason-Point: San Antonio’s, now open in South Park, serves $1 margaritas todos los días, and Hickory Tavern has a Cinco de Drinko party on the 5th of every month.
Margaritas aren’t just for May either — and now you can finally get a good margarita Uptown at Vida Mexican Kitchen y Cantina. (Actually, you can already get margaritas at the new Qdoba in Uptown, but I’m not sure that really counts as nightlife. That’s more like McDonald’s serving beer or Bojangles serving Sweet Tea vodka.)
Vida is opening in the EpiCentre in mid-September, serving evolved Mexican cuisine and 100 different kinds of tequila to wash it down. Vida has handcrafted margaritas that they’re currently selling at Alive After Five, and they’re featuring a signature Skinny Margarita: diet on the sugar, not the alcoholic content. This is good news, ’cause now I can eat more free chips and salsa. Mexican and margaritas are the perfect appetizer to a night out … that is, unless someone orders a bean burrito.
This article appears in Best of Charlotte 2010.
