WHY Designer margaritas and superb appetizers from California-cuisine pioneers.

WHAT Chef/owners Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken are foodie rock stars whose first, shoebox-size restaurant City morphed into the original Border Grill. Today, TV’s ‘Two Hot Tamales’ have an empire that includes two other Border Grills (Downtown and Vegas) and Feniger’s Street. This is where Santa Monica meets for happy hour: margaritas, mojitos, aged tequilas and wonderful appetizers: shrimp ceviche, wild-mushroom quesadillas, chicken panuchos and great guacamole. The main courses are less rewarding (and more expensive) so the savvy stick to appetizers and drinks. The setting matches the food: vibrantly colorful and powerfully noisy.

WHO Santa Monica’s happy (hour) people; out-of-town admirers of the Two Hot Tamales.