Pineapple Margarita

The lease is signed. March 1, 2023. Rivera's has an address: 1847 East Main Street, Mesa, Arizona. A standalone building on a busy corner with 2,200 square feet of space that currently smells like old sandwich bread and bleach and potential. Jessica and I stood in the empty dining room on signing day and looked at the walls and the floor and the ceiling and the windows that face two streets and the kitchen in the back that will become the pit and I thought: this is where the smoke will live. This is where the fire moves. This is where the dream lands.

David Kim was there. He shook my hand and said, "Most people who dream about restaurants never get here. You got here because you prepared. The preparation was the work. Everything from here is execution." Jessica said, "Execution is a spreadsheet with a timeline." David laughed. He has learned that Jessica's spreadsheets are not metaphors. They are blueprints. They are prophecy.

I called Roberto from the parking lot. He said, "You signed?" I said, "I signed." He said, "Tell me the address." I told him. He was quiet. Then he said, "Drive me there. I want to see it." I drove to Maryvale, picked him up, and brought him to the Mesa location. He walked into the empty building — slowly, with his cane, his sixty-five-year-old body navigating a space that his son will fill with fire — and he stood in the center of the dining room and looked at the kitchen and looked at the walls and looked at the spot where the counter will be. The spot where he will stand. The counter where he promised to work.

He touched the wall. He does not usually touch things with tenderness — Roberto is a man of tongs and handshakes and functional contact. But he touched the wall of Rivera's with his open palm, like he was feeling for a heartbeat, like the building was alive and he was listening. Then he said, "This is the one, mijo. I can feel it." He felt the same thing I felt in September when I walked in for the first time. The feeling of home. The feeling of the grill, but bigger. The feeling of the family, but wider. The feeling of Rivera's.

We stood there — father and son, in an empty building, on a corner in Mesa — and the building did not have smoke or fire or food or customers. It had two men and a dream that started at a cinder block grill in Maryvale and traveled thirty-four years to arrive at this address. 1847 East Main Street. Rivera's. The fire lives here now.

When I drove back from Mesa that evening with my dad in the passenger seat — his palm still warm from touching that wall — I knew we needed to mark it somehow, nothing elaborate, nothing that required a kitchen we didn’t have yet. Jessica had a pineapple margarita waiting on the counter when we walked in. No ceremony. Just the right drink at the right moment, cold and bright and a little sharp, like the feeling in your chest when something you’ve been reaching for finally lands in your hands. That’s the toast I want to share here — because every dream that finds its address deserves one.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 5 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

4 oz blanco tequila
2 oz triple sec or Cointreau
4 oz fresh pineapple juice
1 oz fresh lime juice (about 1 large lime)
1 tsp agave nectar or honey, optional, to taste
Kosher salt or Tajin, for rimming the glasses
2 cups ice, plus more for serving
Pineapple wedges and lime slices, for garnish

Instructions

Rim the glasses. Pour a thin layer of salt or Tajin onto a small plate. Run a lime wedge around the rim of each glass, then press the rim into the salt to coat. Set glasses aside.
Combine the cocktail. Add the tequila, triple sec, pineapple juice, lime juice, and agave nectar (if using) to a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice.
Shake well. Secure the lid and shake vigorously for 15–20 seconds until the shaker feels very cold on the outside.
Strain and serve. Fill each rimmed glass with fresh ice. Strain the margarita evenly between the two glasses.
Garnish and enjoy. Tuck a pineapple wedge and a lime slice onto each glass rim. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pineapple Margarita — The Toast We Made When Rivera’s Got Its Address