On Saturday, Oct. 24, people lined up at a small building on the walkway between the Donald Dungan Library and the Norma Hertzog Community Center for their first coffee from Café Mesa, according to the Daily Pilot. The stand is 1,100 square feet. It serves brewed and chilled drinks, snacks and prepared food from Thursday through Sunday.
That doesn't sound like much. But the city planned this café alongside the new library and community center, and it was meant to open with them. It opened years after both, making it the last planned piece of Lions Park at 570 W. 18th Street to arrive. The city owns the stand, and its operating contract sends a share of every sale to the library next door.
A park rebuilt in three stages
For Eastside families, Lions Park sits just across Newport Boulevard. It has been the library stop and playground run for years, and it came together one piece at a time:
- May 2019. The new Donald Dungan Library opened to the public.
- July 17, 2021. The Norma Hertzog Community Center and the rebuilt playground opened together, according to the City of Costa Mesa's announcement.
- Oct. 24, 2026. Café Mesa held its ribbon cutting on the Lions Park Event Lawn, 1845 Park Avenue.
The 2021 stage is the one most people know. The playground has an airplane theme and a restored Panther Jet, along with swings, a zip line, seesaws and sand play areas on rubberized surfacing. The event lawn covers about an acre, with 25,000 square feet of programmable grass, a central stage and outdoor power outlets.
So for five years the park had a library, a community center, a jet to climb on and a lawn with a stage, but nowhere to buy a drink. The third stage filled that gap.
Why a coffee stand took nearly a decade
The Daily Pilot traced the delay to money. The city set aside general fund dollars for the buildout. Then rising costs, the COVID pandemic and other constraints stalled the plan, and in 2022 a second source of money arrived.
| Funding source | Amount | How it arrived |
|---|---|---|
| City of Costa Mesa general fund | $1.1 million | The city's original commitment to the buildout |
| American Rescue Plan Act dollars | $1.2 million | Allocated in 2022 by Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley's office |
| Total | $2.3 million | Paid for the city-owned café |
The federal allocation was slightly larger than the city's own commitment, and the Daily Pilot credits it with letting the work continue. Foley served as Costa Mesa's mayor from 2018 to 2020, and she attended the opening. The Daily Pilot reported that she called the café a "new third space for the community."
At $2.3 million, Café Mesa is a public building, much like the library and community center beside it. The city owns it and hires a local business to run it.
Who runs the counter
In February, the city picked Ally Garvin, the owner of Neat Coffee, as Café Mesa's first operator. Many Costa Mesa residents already know her coffee. Neat started in 2015 as a pop-up inside a co-working space on Pomona Avenue and moved into its own storefront on the same street four years later. Last November, Garvin opened a second shop with a roastery in Sunset Beach.
That roastery supplies the park. Garvin roasts beans from Guatemala, Rwanda and Ethiopia in Sunset Beach, so the coffee at the Lions Park counter is roasted by Neat itself.
She described the site to the Daily Pilot in a way any regular at the park would recognize:
"Ever since I started seeing this spot being built, I thought we have to be a part of this. It just feels like our backyard, our play space."
Where part of every cup goes
The contract is what makes this café different. Garvin signed a three-year revenue-sharing agreement with the city, with an option to extend it once for another three years. Under that deal, 3% of Café Mesa's gross revenue goes back, split between the City of Costa Mesa and OC Public Libraries.
The library's share pays for programming at two branches, Donald Dungan and Mesa Verde. In practice, a coffee bought after story time helps pay for future story times in the same building. Foley described it the same way at the opening: proceeds support library programming and building improvements, so "residents and visitors can grab a cup of coffee after picking up a new book at the library."
The 3% is gross revenue, which means it's taken from total sales before costs. As long as the counter is busy, the library collects its share whether or not the café turns a profit in a given month.
A café that keeps people at the park longer
Garvin told the Daily Pilot that families greeted the opening with "Oh my gosh, finally, we'll be here every day." She said the stand "gives people permission to hang out here longer and a reason to stay."
Until now, the library, the playground and the lawn were each a reason to stop by. With a café between them, a library pickup can turn into a morning at the park.
The schedule works too. Café Mesa is open Thursday through Sunday, and the Donald Dungan branch's December calendar puts two of its regular children's programs on those days:
- Thursdays, Dec. 3 and 10: Toddler Story Time
- Saturdays, Dec. 5 and 12: Family Storytime
- Tuesdays, Dec. 1, 8 and 15: Playtime
- Wednesdays, Dec. 2 and 9: Bilingual Storytime
The full list is on the Donald Dungan branch calendar. Times and sign-up details are posted there, and it's best to check them before going.
Garvin has said she'd like to add days and expand the menu eventually, possibly opening the stand during library or civic events. First, she wants to get a feel for the space and who comes by. The Thursday-through-Sunday schedule is the starting point, not a final one.
The rest of the December calendar
The city's Snoopy House holiday display takes place at City Hall, not at Lions Park. The City of Costa Mesa calendar lists it on the City Hall Front Lawn from Friday, Dec. 11, through Friday, Dec. 18, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Snoopy House is an evening event and Café Mesa is a daytime stop, so they fit into the same December without competing.
For daytime plans on the Eastside itself, our East 17th Street update covers which storefronts are refilling and in what order. Our weekend guide to East Side Costa Mesa covers the longtime spots.
Neighborhood details like a new café near the library help Leslie get to know a place, and she follows them across East Side Costa Mesa and the surrounding coast. If you'd like to talk about what's changing near your street and what it means for your home, Leslie Thompson would be glad to meet you, coffee in hand. Schedule a private consultation.
