Today, February 22, is National Margarita Day, one of the most sacred days for Marina cougars and Jimmy Buffett fanboys living in Sausalito. While San Francisco's artisan bar scene desperately wants to make margaritas the new manhattans (we'll let Regina George tell you how we feel about that), the drink of choice for many a Lake Havasu spring-breaker remains just that: the cocktail of the pedestrian partier. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

From where did Margaritas originate? Well, there are several theories, but our favorite involves legendary chanteuse Peggy Lee. Wikipedia notes:

Another common origin tale begins the cocktail’s history at the legendary Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas where, in 1948, head bartender Santos Cruz created the Margarita for singer Peggy Lee. He supposedly named it after the Spanish version of her name, Margarita, and it’s been a hit ever since.

And on that note, La Condesa Napa Valley's award-winning bartender Nate Wales celebrates the margarita by sharing his special recipe with SFist. Check it:

La Clasica Margarita:
1.5oz El Jimador Blanco
.75oz Patron Citronage Orange Liqueur
1.25oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
.5oz Organic Agave Nectar
.5oz Filtered Water
combine ingredients over ice; shake hard, then pour into a rocks glass rimmed with salt (LCNV makes house-made cactus-lemongrass salt) and garnish with a thin floater of lime.

Mmm.

Nate and his bar crew will make heaps of these special margaritas tonight at La Condesa in Napa Valley (a mere $6 during happy hour from 4-6 p.m.) If you can't make it all the way up to Napa, here are a few of our favorite local places to grab cheap and/or fancy pitchers of margaritas:

- Puerto Alegre, 546 Valencia (at 16th Street)
- Pancho Villa Taqueria, 3071 16th Street (at Valencia)
- Tommy's, 5929 Geary Boulevard (at 23rd Avenue)
- Tres, 130 Townsend (at Second Street)
- Velvet Cantina, 3349 23rd Street (between Mission and Valencia)
- Tia's, 300 19th Avenue (at Geary)

Feel free to tell us where readers can get your favorite margarita. (Extra points if it's blue.)

P.S. Over at Gothamist, they're also celebrating. For you NYCers out there dying of thirst, check out their picks.