On April 14, we lost bartending legend Robert “Bobby” Lozoff, one of the two Trident bartenders who created the tequila sunrise at the Sausalito restaurant in the 1970s. Lozoff had been living in Hawaii since he left Sausalito in 1976. He died at age 77.
More than a bartender, Lozoff came to Sausalito from Canada in 1970. Afterward, he moved to Hawaii to help open the Blue Max nightclub, famed for its rock and roll connections. When the Blue Max closed in the early 1980s, Lozoff transitioned into tech, first becoming a computer consultant and eventually teaching computer classes at the West Maui Senior Center. Lozoff then moved from Lahaina to Wailuku after the devastating fires in 2023.
A special plaque commemorating the tequila sunrise at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito.(Courtesy of Marin History Museum)
The story of his and Billy Rice’s tequila sunrise — Rice died in 1997 — has become a bar culture phenomenon, reported in publications such as National Geographic Assignment and the Daily Beast.
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Following those stories, Jose Cuervo released a memorial line of tequilas featuring the Rolling Stones — including a $4,000 version — in 2014 and then commissioned a series of video infomercials with Lozoff and other Trident alumni, including a Super Bowl spot in 2016.
“Mick Jagger came up to the bar and asked for a margarita,” Lozoff reiterated in 2022. “I asked him, ‘How about a tequila sunrise?’ And the rest is history.”
“(Bobby and Billy) had some wild times and they sure made a lot of money. At first, I didn’t believe the Rolling Stones story, but there it is; it’s true. We had a framed menu in the house, front and back, with that almost illegible artwork,” said Mary Niblok, Rice’s ex-girlfriend, in 2023.
Keith Richards himself dubbed the Stones’ 1972 tour the “cocaine and tequila sunrise tour,” and that widely publicized tour and its massively popular mascot drink begat the eponymous 1973 song by the Eagles, which later begat the 1988 eponymous movie starring Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell. In between, everyone from the Club canned cocktails to Jose Cuervo has gotten in on the act. Harley-Davidson motorcycles include “tequila sunrise” as an official color, and there are orange-pink tequila sunrise candles, lip glosses and nail polishes. Today, the tequila sunrise can be found in every major cocktail guide, and I’ve personally seen it on menus around the world. Anywhere the Stones went, so did the tequila sunrise.
“I don’t think it meant all that much to him,” said Marin resident Jerry Pompili, a former concert promoter and Bill Graham associate. “He didn’t really care about (his legacy). I will miss him. He was a sweet old friend.”
It was Pompili who arranged the Rolling Stones party at the Trident that launched the tequila sunrise into the stratosphere. (Pompili can also be heard introducing Peter Frampton on the multi-platinum 1976 live album “Frampton Comes Alive!”)
Over the years, I had the great fortune to interview Lozoff on a number of occasions, and he wasn’t all that interested in his cocktail legacy — which is the opposite of how those things usually work.
“The new drinks I see these days I can’t relate to,” Lozoff told me in 2012. “But I have a million stories about the Trident. It was a fun time, and I have no regrets.”
In 2024, the Marin History Museum and the Trident restaurant placed a historical marker on the front of the building to commemorate Rice, Lozoff and their tequila sunrise. Sadly, Lozoff was unable to attend the event.
Friends are encouraged to leave their thoughts on his memorial page.
Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at [email protected]
The tequila sunrise, left, at Sausalito’s Trident restaurant. (Photo by Jeff Burkhart)
Recipe
Bobby Lozoff’s Preferred Tequila Sunrise
Ingredients
1 ½ ounces Santo Tequila Blanco
1 ½ ounces fresh-squeezed orange juice
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
1/8 ounce real grenadine, such as Stirrings
1/8 ounce crème de cassis
1 Merry Maraschino stemmed all-natural cherry
Directions
Fill a mixing glass with ice and add tequila, orange juice and lime juice.
Stir and strain over new ice in a serving glass.
Add crème de cassis and grenadine, allowing them to sink, creating the sunrise effect.
Garnish with cherry.
Note: Santo Spirits, owned by Marin resident Sammy Hagar, also holds the rights to National Tequila Sunrise Day, which is observed annually on June 21.
— Adapted by Jeff Burkhart
