Hey Back Bay bees , happy Friday!

It’s officially November, which means Santa is arriving at Bass Pro Shops this Saturday… in 84° heat. The Halloween candy isn’t even on clearance yet, and we’ve already got Sugar Plum crafts at the Fairgrounds and a Frozen screening at the Lido Theater, which is the only frozen thing you’ll see around here this weekend. Also, the KFC on 17th is finally going to be replaced with a coffee shop. Just kidding. It will be a burger joint 🙄 .

To our new readers—welcome! The Back Bay Buzz delivers just the right amount of news and events for locals in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. No crime, no politics, no spam—just the good stuff. We scan newspapers, blogs, social media, business journals, and Google alerts so you don’t have to.

In today’s Buzz:

— Jon Dougher, Publisher, Back Bay Buzz

Nearly a decade in the brewing, Costa Mesa’s Lions Park finally has its coffee shop. Café Mesa held its grand opening last Saturday in the 1,100-square-foot stand between the Donald Dungan Library and the Norma Hertzog Community Center. It’s serving hot and iced drinks, snacks, and prepared food Thursday through Sunday. The twist is that the city owns the café, and it picked Ally Garvin of local favorite Neat Coffee to run it. Garvin roasts her single-origin beans (Guatemala, Rwanda, Ethiopia) at her Sunset Beach shop, and she lives less than a mile from the park, so this is literally her backyard. The project sat on the back burner for years thanks to rising costs and COVID. Then $1.1 million from the city plus $1.2 million in federal pandemic relief funds from Supervisor Katrina Foley’s office got it percolating again. The best part is that 3% of gross sales goes back to the city and OC Public Libraries to fund programming at the Dungan and Mesa Verde branches. Your latte is basically a library donation, so grab a book, grab a cortado, and let the kids loose on the playground.

Every cup from my Keurig started tasting weak, flat, stale — so I unplugged it and stuck it in a closet. Then I learned the dirty secret of grocery store K-Cups: by the time a pod reaches your kitchen, it's usually spent months going from factory to warehouse to truck to shelf. The flavor oils are long gone. Some brands even over-roast to hide it.

The fix wasn't a new machine. It was fresh pods from Angelino's, a family-owned L.A. roastery that roasts, packs, and ships within 3–5 days — straight to your door, from 39¢ a cup. Over 1,000,000 happy customers. 50+ flavors, no subscription required, and 15% off your first order, applied automatically at checkout.

Try 35¢ Pods

🌊 Water temp = 73º
Suit Rec: Summer suit

Thanks! Please ignore any typos, our editor is out getting what could be the last batch of room-temp popcorn chicken from KFC.

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