As we push toward celebrating Long Beach Last Call 2025—a 10-day, multi-event celebration of our city’s rich bar culture and the people who make it happen—we will offer a series of features that highlight everything from our most stellar cocktail programs at restaurants to to the very events occurring (like this feature on Marlena in Naples)… All in order to lift a glass to a social and economic driver that rarely receives the love its deserves: our bar industry. For more information on Long Beach Last Call, tap here.
Marlena bar manager David Castillo has always been, at his core, a history teacher. For last year’s Last Call menu, he dived into the world of gin. He had a focus on drinks like Frank’s Special, cocktail maestro Frank Meier’s martini from the 1930s, its recipe first published in his acclaimed 1937 book, “The Artistry of Mixing Drinks.” And the Pegu Club—the namesake drink for Burma’s Pegu Club, its recipe first published in 1923’s “ABCs of Mixing Cocktails” by Harry of Ciro.
This year’s Long Beach Last Call menu is no different—but he’ll be taking on tequila instead.
With Marlena’s menu for Long Beach Last Call 2025, history remains at the epicenter.
“The thing about tequila is that I love blancos,” Dave said. “And I love blancos because they taste like tequila. Reposados and especially añejos are aged to an extent that you’re getting some odd form of a whiskey. And for me, when I want tequila, I actually go toward blancos. And Celaya is just a great example of how blancos should and can be experienced.”
Pulling out the bottle of Celaya blanco and reposado—the latter of which he uses for his tequila old fashioned, “El Viejo”—Dave’s first drink is a “Mexican Firing Squad,” first founded by what Dave calls “the world’s first cocktail blogger,” Charles H. Baker.
“He claimed to have had this drink at the La Cucaracha Bar in Mexico City around 1937,” Dave said, and it has since then been a staple for many with its mixture of tequila blanco, grenadine, lime juice, and Angostura bitters. Dave, however, prefers his own house-made grenadine, where pomegranate molasses and orange blossom create for a punchier end-product than its saccharine cherry counterpart.
The result? A drink that is dangerously poundable or, in the much less HR-friendly words of many male bartenders, a “panty dropper.” Fruity, tart, with a nice bite from the tequila blanco, this drink is a wonderfully re-mastered version of a classic.
The cocktails being featured for Long Beach Last Call 2025 at Marlena
Ever the historian, Dave’s two cocktail offerings are polar opposites in terms of taste: You have the aforementioned Mexican Firing Squad and then the El Viejo, a somewhat spicy, tequila-laden take on an old fashioned that is beautifully balanced and gorgeously orange.
Mexican Firing Squad: Celaya Blanco | Lime | House-made grenadine | Bitters | Orange zest | Cherry
El Viejo: Celaya Reposado | Crème de Cacao | Bitters | Habanero tincture | Orange zest
Wait–you mention Long Beach Last Call 2025. What is it?
Long Beach Food Scene: Last Call—or Long Beach Last Call 2025 if you wanna keep it simple—returns March 1 and run through March 10 with a series of events on each day that celebrates the city’s rich bar culture, community, and its workers. From industry-only and unlimited tastings events to cocktail contests and proper Irish coffee lessons, Long Beach Last Call will continue to be the premiere event celebrating Long Beach’s bar and cocktail culture.
After the success of my restaurant in 2023, Long Beach Food Scene Week, bar owners and tenders rightfully asked: “What about a week for us?” So I decided to oblige and present Long Beach Last Call last year, a ten-day long celebration of Long Beach’s amazing bar culture, it’s even more amazing workers, and the industry that often goes without recognition as one of our city’s largest economic and social drivers. And thousands of people proudly showed up. With the alcohol industry going through a roller-coaster of layoffs and rearrangements—from brands leaving distribution companies to brand representation shrinking nationwide—now is the time more than ever to support these incredible people.
Hence, Long Beach Last Call 2025. And Marlena is a part of that—so go order a drink.
Marlena is located at 5854 E. Naples Plaza.
