There’s a small corner in northeastern Costa Mesa called The Guild Club, where immersive vintage rules the day, and stepping through the door is akin to exiting a time machine. You might think it’s some speakeasy inspired by 1920s Prohibition, but it’s actually earlier than that. Strolling into the Guild Club takes one into a theatrical glimpse of the late 19th century… fine living, as if you were Winston Churchill.
Read More
One of Costa Mesa’s classiest corners is calling it quits after — *gasp* — 99 years in business. Von Hemert Interiors has been a mainstay at 1595 Newport Blvd., on the southern edge of Westside en route to Newport Beach, since the late 1970s. However, the business itself dates to 1920 and founder Anna Martin von Hemert, an immigrant who came to America from Europe…
Read More
A “coffee shop vibe with a guitar factor.” It’s a concise way the marketing director of Cottonwood Music Emporium, a new electric guitar, amp, pedals and effects store in Costa Mesa’s Sobeca District, describes the place. Cottonwood, a name inspired by trees in Colorado, is the brainchild of Jim Deitzel and his marketer/partner, Mary Harden. Their dog, Bowie, also wanders the store, located at 2967 Randolph Ave., Suite C, across from Barley Forge Brewing Company…
Read More
Giorgio Buzzanga, Marco Palazzo and Cristiano Leoni had no prior restaurant experience, but they were intrigued by the trendy quirks of Costa Mesa’s Westside. Buzzanga had been riding his Vespa — because that’s what Italians do, right? — by the eclectic Midway Market at 1661 Superior Ave. when he noticed a vacancy sign at Suite D. The corner spot had been occupied by Waffleholic but was ready to receive new life. So Buzzanga gathered his two friends and they met the people in charge. When they were done, they had the seeds of a restaurant that achieves both an industrial and homey feel. It’s called Trenta, the Italian word for the number 30…
Read More
Photo courtesy of the Costa Mesa Historical Society. The story of how the Costa Mesa city limits...
Read More
Cats are getting a new lease on life from a tiny corner of Costa Mesa. Most know the PetSmart on West 17th Street as being near Trader Joe’s and as a place for all one’s pet needs. But did you know a family-run, nondescript Costa Mesa hometown nonprofit is run out of there too? And it has a clever name: Oppurrtunities. As the moniker implies, they’re all about giving opportunities to cats, hundreds of them.
Read More
Some years ago, designer Brian Talbert was flipping through a magazine described as ‘a European version of GQ’ when he came upon a pair of words he really liked. It was in an article about how ‘high fashion’ took cues from the ‘low fashion’ of soccer hooligans. Apparently, those soccer fanatics wore scarves and layered in a way that piqued the attention of the runway crowd. Tucked within the article was a photo-caption quote from the designer describing how “the violent gentleman” wears his clothes. Violent? Gentleman? Good combo, Talbert thought. He wrote it down for later…
Read More
There may be no one more more excited to launch a business than the three guys behind MoonGoat Coffee. On a recent afternoon, I Heart Costa Mesa caught up with the founding trio — David Yardley, Martin Stern and Mark Evans — in a Santa Ana warehouse. The digs are acting as the temporary base of operations until MoonGoat’s Weststside Costa Mesa HQ is ready. These guys? Beyond ecstatic. Quick to laugh, new ideas popping up seemingly on the fly, eager to explain their coffee-making process — they had it all. In short, MoonGoat Coffee is going to be a Costa Mesa hometown coffee roaster and coffeehouse along Placentia Avenue. Supplementing the brews are food and live entertainment. And, given that area’s dearth of such places, this spot appears poised to have a big effect on the Westside corridor…
Read More
We here at I Heart Costa Mesa love our mesa. We want to see it all and know it all. But what’s in a name? Have you ever driven down Paularino and wondered, “Who or what is a paularino?” Or cruised down Harbor Boulevard thinking, “Where’s the harbor?” (Answer: There never was one, but a harbor is fairly close.) Well, we did some digging to answer these roadworthy questions and find out what’s behind some of Costa Mesa’s street names.
Read More
A few months ago, on a sunny Costa Mesa afternoon, CMPD Officer Trevor Jones returned to the site which, a few weeks earlier, made him a minor Internet sensation. The spot was Sheep Hills, and when Jones arrived, he did the unexpected. He hopped on his patrol bike, dipping and jumping on a few of Sheep Hills’ world-famous dirt ramps. Onlookers, surprised to see a cop handle himself on the trails, hooted and hollered. “Oh my God!” one exclaimed.
Read More
Of all the ATMs in Costa Mesa, the undisputedly best one is on Fairview Road, in a strip mall called Villa La Costa. It’s not that this ATM doesn’t levy a fee. It does. What makes it the best is if you present at the nearby cash register your withdrawal receipt, you’ll get a free drink. Because why not? Everybody’s happy. This is the spirit of Lil’ Pickle, a sub sandwich shop that, popular food aside, may have Costa Mesa’s very best sandwich-shop name. But don’t ask owner Peter Bower how Lil’ Pickle got its moniker. He doesn’t know…
Read More
Costa Mesa’s Eastside may best be known for its eclectic mix of charming Americana homes replete with white picket fences, manicured lawns and cool breezes sweeping upward from Newport Harbor. There is, of course, the occasional Spanish abode mixed in among the grids of tony neighborhoods laid out on a flat mesa, whose streets bear names like Orange Avenue, Robin Hood Lane and Woodland Place. Yet unbeknownst to most, save for the enthusiastic raiser of family-sized farm animals and household pets, is the knowledge that the Eastside is home to Costa Mesa’s unofficial “Chicken HQ.”
Read More