The Story Behind The Bar Tulix's Spicy Margarita

Located in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood, Bar Tulix is a coastal-inspired Mexican restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Justin Bazdarich of Brooklyn-based eateries Oxomoco and Speedy Romeo. Serving up regional dishes from the coastlines of Mexico and Southern California, the menu focuses on seafood bites like crudos, tostadas, and tacos as well as delicious creative cocktails. On any given afternoon, the airy dining room — with its sunny yellow and jade accents — is the perfect place to enjoy some R&R and a well-deserved Margarita.

Just as beloved as its classic Marg, Bar Tulix's Spicy Margarita offers a glorious blend of tang, citrus, and sweet heat imparted from house-made spicy Grand Marnier. “We make our spicy Grand Marnier by letting 80 or so crushed chiltepin chiles that look like little red candies sit in one bottle of Grand Marnier overnight,” says general manager Trey Bliss. He suggests making the batch on the spicier side and then adding as little or as much as you like to the finished cocktail. Of course, no Margarita is complete without a salted rim and photo-worthy garnish, so this Spicy Marg is finished with house-made chile salt and dehydrated fruit wheels. “You can use the dehydrated wheels if you wanna be fancy, but a simple wedge or half-wheel will do just as fine,” Bliss says.

Ingredients

1 ½ ounces blanco tequila
¼ ounce lime
½ ounce lemon
½ ounce Naranja Orange Liqueur
½ ounce dry Curaçao
¼ ounce spicy Grand Marnier (recipe follows)
Chile salt for rim: 1/2 cup coarse finishing salt with 10 chiles, ground in an electric spice grinder or mortar and pestle

Directions

Using an orange cut in half, roll the top outer edge of glass flat against the orange, then push directly into chile salt mixer.
Combine tequila, lemon and lime juice, orange liqueurs in a shaker with ice.
Shake hard, then strain over fresh ice into rimmed glass.