Costa Mesa's Newest Coffee Comes With a Library and a Mercado Attached

In 2015, Ally Garvin started Neat Coffee as a pop-up inside a co-working space on Pomona Avenue. Four years later she moved it into its own storefront on the same street, and last November she opened a second shop with a roastery in Sunset Beach. On Saturday, Oct. 24, she cut the ribbon on a third counter. This one isn't hers. It belongs to the City of Costa Mesa, and it sits at Lions Park between the Donald Dungan Library and the Norma Hertzog Community Center.

A month earlier, at 2300 Harbor Blvd., Casa Libre began roasting Mexican coffee inside Mercado González.

That makes two new Westside coffee counters this fall, and neither has its own front door on a commercial strip. One shares a lawn with a public library. The other shares a market hall with a bakery, a butcher counter and a churro stand. Each is set up to make a place people already visit worth staying in a little longer, and at Café Mesa, a share of the money from each cup goes back into that place.

A Coffee Stand That Took Nearly a Decade to Brew

Café Mesa was supposed to open alongside the library and community center. It didn't. The Daily Pilot's report on the opening says the city set aside $1.1 million in general fund money for the buildout, then shelved the plans as costs rose and the pandemic hit. In 2022, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley's office put $1.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the project, and that restarted the work. The finished 1,100-square-foot stand cost $2.3 million in total.

Foley was Costa Mesa's mayor from 2018 to 2020. She attended the opening and, according to the Daily Pilot, called the café a "new third space for the community."

Because the city owns the café, it is run through a contract with a local operator. The city chose Garvin in February, and the agreement she signed works like this:

• Term: three years, with one optional three-year extension
• Revenue share: 3% of Café Mesa's gross revenue goes back to the public side
• Who receives it: the share is split between the city and OC Public Libraries
• Where the library's portion goes: programming at the Donald Dungan and Mesa Verde branches

So part of every coffee bought at Lions Park helps pay for the library programs offered in the building next door.

Thursday Through Sunday at Lions Park

Café Mesa serves hot and iced drinks, snacks and prepared food Thursday through Sunday. Garvin roasts the beans at the Sunset Beach Neat Coffee. They come from Guatemala, Rwanda, Ethiopia and other growing regions, and she traces her interest in coffee production to a year she spent in Uganda.

Garvin lives less than a mile from the park, and the Daily Pilot quoted her describing the first few days:

"It's been so fun to see so many families who are like, 'Oh my gosh, finally, we'll be here every day.' It's really fun just seeing people sitting and lingering. It gives people permission to hang out here longer and a reason to stay."

She told the paper she might add days or expand the menu later, possibly opening the stand during library and civic events, but first wants to see how the space gets used.

Thursday through Sunday overlaps well with the library's calendar. Lions Park is at 570 W. 18th St., and the city's ribbon-cutting listing gives 1845 Park Ave. as the café's address. The Donald Dungan Library calendar has a Native American Heritage dance performance on Thursday, Nov. 12, which is also one of the café's open days.

The holiday weeks need some planning. According to the OC Public Libraries 2026 holiday schedule, branches close early at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and stay closed Nov. 26–27 for Thanksgiving. They close early again at 5 p.m. on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 and are closed on Christmas Day. Those dates apply to the library only, so a weekend coffee in the park and a library visit won't always line up in late November and December.

Café Mesa is closed Monday through Wednesday. On those days, Neat Coffee's original shop at 1922 Pomona Ave. is open every day from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Down Harbor, Casa Libre Roasts Mexico on the Mercado Floor

At Lions Park, the coffee is a reason to spend more time at the library. At Mercado González, 2300 Harbor Blvd., Casa Libre uses the coffee to show customers where it was grown. The Orange County Register reported that the café roasts single-origin Mexican beans on site, and that customers can taste the regions side by side and watch the beans roast before they're bagged. The Daily Pilot dates the grand opening to Sept. 24.

The opening coffees were specific enough to trace back to individual farms:

1. El Cielo farm, Villa Corzo, Chiapas. Grown by Doña Duglas Molina and her family, with notes of chocolate, red plum and honeydew melon.
2. Small farms near Motozintla, Chiapas, close to the Guatemalan border.
3. Small farms near Huatusco, Veracruz.

The Register quoted cofounder Natalie Taormina saying the goal is for guests "to discover that 'Mexican coffee' isn't one single flavor or experience." Cofounder Jeremy Creighton summed up the idea as "mi casa es tu casa," adding, "Mexico is literally our neighbor, and its coffee deserves a place in the spotlight."

Besides espresso and batch brew, the menu has two house drinks. The El Jaguar Latte uses a syrup made from corn, cacao and chile, and the El Colibrí is sweetened with café de olla syrup.

What the Mercado Adds Around the Cup

Casa Libre's pastry case is supplied by Pastelería La González, the Mercado's bakery, which provides canela rolls, jamón pockets, chocolate chip galletas, almond croissants and colibrí galletas, the bakery's gingerbread hummingbird cookies. The bakery's own page also lists daily pan dulce and tres leches cakes.

At Lions Park, the café sits next to the library. At the Mercado, it sits among food counters. The Mercado's roster of puestos includes Churreria El Moro, Tacos Los Guichos, La Tapatia Birrieria, Guisados Las Cazuelas, Mariscos El Pariente, Marisqueria El Puerto, Carnitas Don Miguel, La Tamaleria and Aguas Frescas La Delicias, along with Carniceria La Preferida, a cremeria and a tortilleria. A coffee and a canela roll can easily become a tamale order, a pound of carnitas or fresh tortillas to take home.

For more on Costa Mesa outside the coffee line, our Costa Mesa neighborhood guide covers the rest of the city, and our look at the city's two big stages covers its arts calendar.

If you live on the Westside and want to know how places like Lions Park and Mercado González shape day-to-day life around your home, or what that means for a move you're planning, Alcove Collective is glad to talk it through. Connect with the Collective.