The Grumman F9F Panther jet has sat in the playground at Lions Park for more than 60 years. It is the reason generations of Costa Mesa families call the place "Airplane Park." The official name comes from the Harbor-Mesa Lions Club fish fries once held there, as the Daily Pilot reported in 2021 when the renovated park was about to reopen. Since Saturday, Oct. 24, a short walk from that jet ends at a coffee counter.
Café Mesa is a 1,100-square-foot stand between the Donald Dungan Library and the Norma Hertzog Community Center. It serves brewed and iced drinks, snacks and prepared foods Thursday through Sunday. The city held the ribbon-cutting on the Lions Park Event Lawn. The City of Costa Mesa owns the stand, and the contract to run it sends a share of every sale to the library a few steps away. The café turns the park and the library into one stop, and its coffee helps pay for that library's programs.
A cafe that was always in the plan
The café was part of the Lions Park redesign from the start. In March 2017, the Orange County Register reported on a $36 million plan for a 22,860-square-foot, two-story library with an 890-square-foot café. Under the same plan, the old Donald Dungan Library building would become the new community center.
The library opened in May 2019. The café took another seven years. According to the Daily Pilot's report on the opening, the city set aside $1.1 million from its general fund to build it, but rising costs, the COVID pandemic and other limits kept pushing the work back. In 2022, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley's office put $1.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money into the project, which let construction continue. That adds up to a $2.3 million building, which ended up larger than the 890 square feet first drawn.
That price makes more sense once you know what the city is buying. Most coffee shops lease space from a landlord. Here the city is the landlord, and it picks the operator.
How a cup of coffee pays for library programs
In February, the city selected Ally Garvin, the local owner of Neat Coffee, as Café Mesa's first operator. The Daily Pilot reported these terms:
- Length: a three-year revenue-sharing agreement with one optional three-year extension
- Payment: 3% of Café Mesa's gross revenue, split between the city and OC Public Libraries
- What the library portion pays for: programs at the Donald Dungan and Mesa Verde branches
A library branch is rarely tied this directly to the café beside it. Every latte bought after a story time sends a small amount back to the next one. Foley, who was Costa Mesa's mayor from 2018 to 2020, called the café a "new third space for the community." She added that people can "grab a cup of coffee after picking up a new book at the library, knowing their money is being reinvested right here in Costa Mesa."
Garvin has deep roots on the westside. She started Neat Coffee in 2015 as a pop-up inside a co-working space on Pomona Avenue and moved into her own storefront on the same street four years later. In November 2025, she opened a second shop with a roastery in Sunset Beach. She roasts the Café Mesa beans there, sourcing from Guatemala, Rwanda and Ethiopia among other places. She told the Daily Pilot why she applied:
"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."
In the same report, she described families arriving on opening weekend saying they would "be here every day," and said the café "gives people permission to hang out here longer and a reason to stay."
What sits within a short walk of the counter
The library and the playground were already a common pairing at Lions Park. The café adds a reason to stay between the two. The park started in 1940 as Costa Mesa Park on a 10-acre site and took the Lions Park name in the late 1970s. Today a coffee can carry you past:
- The Panther jet playground. The 2021 renovation added new play equipment, landscaping, lighting, concrete paths and restrooms around the jet, which stayed in place.
- The Donald Dungan Library's Library of Things. OC Public Libraries lends musical instruments, tech, toys and kitchen items from this branch, and also offers laptop checkout, two reservable study rooms, public computers and free Wi-Fi.
- Tech tutoring. The branch holds computer and tech help Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and Thursdays at 5 p.m. The Thursday session lands on one of Café Mesa's four open days.
- Books in several languages. The branch carries collections in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian and Spanish.
- Davis Field, the Costa Mesa Historical Society and the Downtown Recreation Center. All three share the park grounds, along with softball, a picnic shelter and 13 picnic tables.
For current branch hours and the program calendar, see the OC Public Libraries page for the Donald Dungan branch.
Thursday through Sunday, for now
The four-day schedule is a starting point. Garvin told the Daily Pilot she might add days and expand the menu, and might open the stand during library or civic events, but wants to learn the space and its customers first.
The original plan points to what those events could look like. The new library was designed with a smaller footprint than the old community center, which added about an acre of open space. The 2017 staff report listed art shows, concerts, farmers markets and recreation programs as possible uses for that acre. Until now, that lawn had nothing to eat or drink nearby. Now a city-owned counter sits next to it, and its operator has already said she's open to civic events.
Another Costa Mesa café built around its beans
Café Mesa wasn't the only Costa Mesa coffee project scheduled for this fall. The Orange County Register reported that Casa Libre, a café devoted to coffee grown in Mexico, was set to open Sept. 24 inside Mercado González at 2300 Harbor Blvd. Café Mesa's beans come from around the world. Casa Libre's plan centered on one country, roasting single-origin beans on site so customers could compare growing regions such as Chiapas and Veracruz. The announced opening selections included coffee from Doña Duglas Molina and her family's El Cielo farm in Villa Corzo, Chiapas, along with beans from small farms near Motozintla and Huatusco.
The announced menu featured the El Jaguar Latte, made with a corn, cacao and chile syrup, and the El Colibrí, which uses café de olla syrup, with Pastelería González supplying canela rolls, jamón pockets, almond croissants and colibrí galletas, the bakery's gingerbread hummingbird cookies. Casa Libre's website carries its current details and hours.
Next up on the civic calendar is Snoopy House, which the city lists for Dec. 11 through 18, 2026, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the City Hall front lawn.
If you'd like to talk through how Lions Park, the library and Costa Mesa's westside fit with what you're planning next, Gregory Schnitzer is happy to meet over coffee. Let's Connect.
