Meat Casa Es Su Casa

Cactus, on Alki, gets you your margaritas pronto.

Where there is a beach, there will be meatheads, especially when the sun is shining. Take a stroll down Alki most Friday nights in the summer and it will look like—to quote a friend of mine—Southcenter Mall just closed and pushed the crowd north. That’s why, despite the generous water-and-city views, heading out for a drink there can be tricky. Cactus, a bar and restaurant specializing in Mexican and Southwest fare, can overflow with “bros,” “dudes,” and their ladies of choice, but it’s too good to ignore just for that reason alone. The place was absolutely crammed to the gills with people—apparently nobody wanted to cook at home that night—but we found two empty seats at the corner of the bar where our server shook up two margaritas and served them almost before we were finished ordering the damn things (that’s service, my friends!). Since it was so stiflingly hot, beer, for once in my life, did not sound good, but the sugary tang of a house margarita (sorry…casa margarita, as the menu states) was the ticket. They went down dangerously smooth, and, paired with the jalapenos on the nachos and the 90-degree weather, put us in a sort of narcotized state by the time we left. Needless to say, we were no longer bothered by the meatheads outside.