The frozen margarita is, simply put, the perfect cocktail.

It’s fun, it’s fruity, it’s inexplicably effortless yet complex, and it packs a punch of both flavor (sweet, spicy, salty), and icy texture.

That being said, we devotees of the frozen margarita face a difficult task in finding our consecrated drink in the barren depths of Morningside Heights. Yeah, sure, I guess there are those crowd-pleaser frozen margs at The Heights that everyone seems to enjoy, and these will do in a pinch if your tequila-and-sugar cravings really hit as you vegetate away in your 6:10-7 PM Thursday night discussion section located in the dismal Rapunzelian tower that is Knox Hall.

But, whether these frozen margs are actually good is an entirely different question altogether. The frozen margs at The Heights taste like the slushies at JJ’s, a feature that gives the basis for its mass appeal. But coming from a self-proclaimed frozen marg expert, it lacks many of the fundamental elements necessary in a “classic frozen marg” – a distinct lime flavor, the slight spice and agave of tequila, the correct degree of ice blend. The Heights frozen marg is a good slushie, but it’s really not that great of a frozen marg. Sorry, this is just a fact.

With Cascabel and its wonderful watermelon-lime concoctions having recently disappeared from the neighborhood, our frozen margarita options are now limited at best. This is where the frozen margarita at 1020 comes in. If you haven’t had a chance to try them, the regular 1020 margaritas are great, but the bar’s frozen margarita is simply….fantastic. It strikes the right balance of tartness and sweetness, allows for the lime to shine through, and comes in two flavors of classic and guava/passionfruit, great for the easily-overwhelmed customer.

The tragedy that has recently befallen the Columbia community, however, is that these frozen margaritas have been nowhere to found since the beginning of the school year. Every single time I have gone to 1020 since October, the frozen margarita machines have been completely empty. Every single time I have asked a bartender about it, they’ve told me the machines are out of order and they have no idea why. And every single time I spend a night sitting at a booth with friends in that bar, any inkling of fun I could possibly have is spoiled by those harrowingly empty machines, taunting me, relentlessly, from the corner of my eye.

So here ends my appeal to the owners and managers of 1020: find a little mercy for a desperate student looking for a good blended cocktail around here, and please, if you have a heart, bring back the frozen margs.

Photo via Bwog Archives