Battle of the Margs

By Maddy McCarty and Breann Robinson

Two locations on Broadway Avenue are famous for Tex-Mex and margaritas: Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, established 2003 in Fort Worth, and Chimy’s Cerveceria, established 2002 in Lubbock.

Texas Tech students frequent both, but which one is better is up for a debate.

A frozen half and half strawberry margarita from Chimy's. Maddy McCarty/The Hub@TTU

A frozen half and half strawberry margarita from Chimy’s. Maddy McCarty/The Hub@TTU

The chains have many similarities, such as selling their own bottled seasonings, Fuzzy’s Dust and Chimy’s Dirt, for $3.99.

Fuzzy’s, with a capacity limit of 155 people, has two locations in Lubbock and more than 50 in Texas. The company is expanding, with locations in more than 10 states. Chimy’s has one location in Lubbock and five locations total, mostly in college towns.

Although Chimy’s has a larger capacity, 214 to Fuzzy’s 155, students are seen lining up for the bar more frequently than they do for Fuzzy’s.

One Saturday, there was a line outside of Chimy’s at 1:30 p.m. The line has started forming earlier and earlier each Friday, most recently before 3:30 p.m.

“I prefer Chimy’s because of the atmosphere,” said Nicole Crites, a senior journalism major from Fort Worth. “There’s always people you know there, it’s smaller and more intimate so it’s just more fun.”

A frozen strawberry margarita from Fuzzy's. Maddy McCarty/The Hub@TTU

A frozen strawberry margarita from Fuzzy’s. Maddy McCarty/The Hub@TTU

Although she prefers Chimy’s, where margaritas are $6.50, she said she likes the taste of Fuzzy’s margaritas ($5.95) better. She helped The Hub@TTU put the battle of the margaritas to the test, by drinking three Chimy’s drinks and blowing in a breathalyzer after each one.

What we wanted to figure out is which drinks get you more drunk. The simple answer is Chimy’s. Every drink they serve is a double. Basically, you get almost twice the alcohol for 55 cents more.

Fuzzy’s puts 3/5 of a gallon of tequila in five gallons of margarita. Chimy’s puts a gallon of tequila in the same amount of liquid. This makes Chimy’s margaritas about 12 percent alcohol. Both of these recipes also include Triple Sec.

If you want a cheaper margarita, Fuzzy’s has them for $3 on Wednesdays. Chimy’s are $5 during happy hour, which is all day Monday and Tuesday.

Disclaimer: This is the breathalyzer we used. It claims to have police-grade accuracy, but we cannot be sure. We did our best to make sure our participants, all of legal age, were hydrated with water and had enough food in their stomachs.

While drinking her first drink, a Redd’s Apple Ale, Crites ate two tacos. It took her 45 minutes to drink the first two drinks, and 50 minutes for the third.

Nicole Crites drinking a rocks strawberry margarita from Chimy's.

Nicole Crites drinking a rocks strawberry margarita from Chimy’s.

BAC after the first drink: .05

BAC after the second drink, a frozen strawberry margarita: .14

BAC after the third drink, a strawberry rocks margarita: .25

At this point, she said she needed to use the bathroom.

“Yeah, I think I’m a little drunk,” she said after standing.

Johnathan Smith participated in the same experiment at Fuzzy’s.

We asked him to drink similar drinks for a fair comparison, so he started with a Blue Moon. He also ate fajita nachos. It took him 40 minutes to finish the first two drinks, at which point he said, “I’m about to be buzzed.”

Johnathan Smith drinking a rocks margarita at Fuzzy's.

Johnathan Smith drinking a rocks margarita at Fuzzy’s.

BAC after the first drink: .04

BAC after the second drink, a house margarita on the rocks: .14

BAC after the third drink, a house margarita on the rocks: .09

As I said, we cannot be sure of the accuracy. But, men tend to have lower BACs than women. He was also drinking water, and some time had passed.

After his third drink, he said, “I’m starting to feel it.”

Since we wanted to be fair, we decided to get a man to drink at Chimy’s and a woman to drink at Fuzzy’s. Caleb Bellando participated in the experiment at Chimy’s, and this time we stuck to straight liquor.

He ate cheese fries while consuming his third drink and drank some water every time he blew in the breathalyzer. After his first drink, which took him 20 minutes to finish, he said he was starting to feel it.

Caleb Bellando blowing into the breathalyzer at Chimy's.

Caleb Bellando blowing into the breathalyzer at Chimy’s.

BAC after the first drink, a house margarita on the rocks: .11

BAC after the second drink, a frozen strawberry margarita: .18

BAC after the third drink, a double vodka soda: .21

While drinking his last drink, he said, “It could easily be like 2 a.m. right now. That’s how drunk I feel.”

Quran Batiste, a Hub@TTU staff member, volunteered to drink at Fuzzy’s, even though she does not like the “taste of alcohol.” At only 104 pounds, she could only get through two margaritas.

Quran Batiste drinking a frozen strawberry margarita at Fuzzy's. Maddy McCarty/The Hub@TTU

Quran Batiste drinking a frozen strawberry margarita at Fuzzy’s. Maddy McCarty/The Hub@TTU

She ate shortly before arriving at Fuzzy’s and also drank some water before blowing in the breathalyzer.

BAC after the first drink, a rocks strawberry margarita: .07

BAC after the second drink, a frozen strawberry margarita: .14

After her second drink, she said: “I want to go swimming, I’d probably drown if I went swimming right now, though.”

Although she said she does not enjoy the taste of any margaritas, she said Fuzzy’s taste better than Chimy’s. She also prefers Fuzzy’s environment.

“It was way more chill, and I wanted to eat the food because it smelled so good,” Batiste said.

So which bar is better? It seems like a matter of preference. Chimy’s has more potent drinks, but make sure to get a safe ride after drinking at either bar.

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Comments

  1. Kliff Kingsbury says

    Besides the part about Nicole Crites, this was a cool article.