Category: Drink

SOCO Speakeasy: The Guild Club

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.

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Dean Tompkins: Costa Mesa, Coffee and Cannabis

On this episode of the I Heart Costa Mesa podcast, we catch up with our friend, Dean Tompkins, of Thunderking Coffee. Tompkins is always funny and engaging… and we’re pretty convinced he’s the guy who personally knows every single person in Costa Mesa! In this conversation, we discuss the latest happenings at his local coffee company, his love for his city and, *gulp*, the tricky issue of the newly-legalized cannabis industry. It’s a conversation unlike any we’ve had on the podcast to date…

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A Brush With Beer

Chris Kent is a unique kind of a guy—he can tell you all about the perspective and symmetry of a piece of art while also educating you on the “hoppiness” and mouthfeel of your favorite craft beer. All with said beer in hand. (Now that’s talent.) Chris is the “Head Dude” at Craft & Arts, an arty, hop-filled experience that he likes to describe as, “not your average paint night.”

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The Top Chef Tackle

Costa Mesa is a foodie mecca. There are so many good restaurants around town. We could easily ‘dine out’ for every breakfast, lunch, dinner – plus happy hours, Taco Tuesdays, brunches, suppers and tea times – and still not make a dent in all the eateries our mouthwatering Mesa has to offer. (Although, forks up! We’re sure gonna try.) So when we heard that Season 11 Top Chef Alumnus, Brian Huskey, was serving top-shelf burgers, sandwiches, salads and seafood – in a casual, pub-like, ‘grub shack’ environment – we knew we had to tackle that, stat…

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Coming Home To Brew

The first time I walked into Windsor Homebrew Supply Co., I didn’t know the difference between a hop and a hopper. I mean, I love a tasty craft beer as much as the next Costa Mesan, but I had no idea how it was made. My husband, however, had recently taken an interest in brewing at home. He had been talking about it forever, and I wanted to give him a gift that showed I’d been listening. A friend told me about the greatest little homebrew shop right here in Costa Mesa, just off Randolph Street. “The owner is so friendly,” she said. Sure enough, I stepped into Windsor and my lack of hoppy knowledge was all but forgotten…

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Shoot For The MoonGoat

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…

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Coloring Outside The Wines

A creativity explosion is happening in Costa Mesa and (lucky us!) we all get to be a part of it. The ‘artification’ here just keeps leveling up! Every day now, it seems, new examples of artists, makers, builders, thinkers, tinkerers and creators are sprouting all over our city. While some are focused on creating their own artistic outcomes, others – like today’s featured Costa Mesan – are driven to extend those creative opportunities into the hands of others. Meet Karen Nguyen. Founder and owner of InspiRED Art Wine, she is all about getting people AFK so they can engage creatively IRL.

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Listen: Podcast “Farm And Culture”

This week on the I Heart Costa Mesa Show, we talk to Claudia Stubin, founder and owner of Farm and Culture (formerly of Fermentation Farm.) We talk about Claudia’s Korean roots, explore the benefits of fermented foods, sample bone-broth lattes and kombucha mocktails on air, and discuss the creative process and all the changes happening to their menu. Grab a glass and join us for one delicious, Costa Mesa episode!

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The Next Chapter For Church’s

Living in this city in 2018 sometimes feels like “A Tale of Two Costa Mesas.” There’s the first city, the original city, the city of years past. This version of the city is fueled by fond memories, cherished memorabilia, deep family roots and historical significance. It mattered, and matters, to lots of residents – it is home, after all. Yet it finds itself increasingly out-of-place in a relentlessly-modernizing Orange County. The second city, the new city, is the Costa Mesa of opportunity and renewal…

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Thunderking: Taking Cold Brew By Storm

Nothing brings more joy to the I Heart Costa Mesa team than connecting with fellow Costa Mesa Superfans. So imagine our jubilation when we unearthed Costa Mesa brother-in-hearts, Rexford “Dean” Tompkins of Thunderking Brewing Company. Tompkins is a “local boy” who – since April 2015 – has been quietly (and then not-so-quietly) killing it in the cold-brewed coffee space. If you trip and fall anywhere in Costa Mesa, it will likely be straight into a keg of Thunderking cold brew.

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Farm It Out: SOCO Farmers’ Market

The beauty of living in a city as diverse and eclectic as Costa Mesa is the panoply of pastimes laid before us. From social clubs to health clubs, escape rooms to spring blooms – and everything in between – this town is truly replete with recreation. Lucky us! Luckier still every Saturday morning from 9am – 2pm, when the charming, community-minded SOCO Farmers’ Market comes to South Coast Collection, in the parking lot adjacent to The OC Mix.

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SoBeCa Brewmeisters

Costa Mesa is a study in contrast. Artistic, yet unpretentious. Independent, yet connected. Cozy, yet cosmopolitan. And just when you think you’ve got us pegged as the family-friendly city with that small-town feel – we open up a big ol’ can of Culture and all bets are off. Because while we may be home to some of the cutest, little, ocean-kissed neighborhoods ever to grace a mesa, we’re also rockin’ world-class theater, live music, award-winning restaurants, action-sports industry, SCP, OC Fair and soon the OCMA – to literally name just a few. We’re so packed with culture, our city limits are fit to burst. But until recently, there was one missing ingredient in our cultural cocktail, a key point of omission often used to separate the cultural wheat from the chaff: Costa Mesa’s distinct lack of a brewery.

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The Mini-Mart With Heart

Hearting Costa Mesa is hungry, thirsty work. (You know the feeling, right?) You’re out shining smiles up and down 17th Street – just beaming bliss all over paradise, per usual – when suddenly, hanger strikes. The smile turns snarly as your heart-shaped glasses slowly slide off your face. You’re so depleted you can barely even cartwheel with Costa Mesa pride (let alone double-pike-triple-layout-tuck.) It’s a sad state of affairs, indeed. Well, fear not, faithful Costa Mesan. You haven’t lost your love of city; you just need to get your snack on.

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Like Taking Milk From An Almond

We thought we’d seen all Costa Mesa has to offer, we really did. But then we found ourselves sitting at a long, shiny counter watching co-owners – Roxanne Golkar and Bradley Reitler – quite literally milk almonds. (You don’t see that everyday.) The painstaking process involves raw ingredients, a blender, and an udder-like sack – called a ‘nut-milk bag’ – used to hand-squeeze the contents and release the pure, creamy end-product.

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Wake Up And Smell The Wilson

Wilson Coffee has all the depth-of-flavor you want from a nice, organic brew – with none of the acidity, bitterness or burnt-notes we’ve (unfortunately) come to expect. Adding sugar or milk almost feels like a sacrilege; the rich bouquet invites you to drink it black.

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