The CAMP and The LAB Changed All Year. October 24 Puts It All on One Saturday.

Since January, The CAMP and The LAB have added a coffee bar that reopened, a breakfast burrito counter, a matcha house, a Japanese bakery, a golf shop, an eyewear brand's first store, a vintage denim and boot shop, a cat lounge, a mezcal bar with a Michelin-trained chef, and a Long Beach brewery's second location. No single opening made big news, and none of them is a national chain. Put them in order, though, and they cover the whole day on the two blocks of Bristol Street known as SoBECA, from the first coffee to last call.

The calendar makes the case. Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 5, the two centers host four events on three dates, and the busiest is Saturday, Oct. 24. That day a dog-friendly market runs in the afternoon at The LAB, and a brewery opening there runs until midnight.

Ten Months of Openings, in Order

Here's the sequence. The months matter because they show how the mix was built.

• January. Daydrift, a coffee and matcha café, came back to The CAMP to start the year, and the center's directory listed a Jan. 10 opening. Across the street, Earlybird Breakfast Burritos had its grand opening at The LAB on Jan. 17 and started regular hours the next day.
• March and April. Bentgrass Golf Supply opened at The CAMP on March 28. It sells apparel, accessories, art and vintage golf gear. A week later, on April 4, Chafinity Matcha Tea House held its ribbon cutting, according to Greer's OC.
• May. 1954 Egashira Pan, a Japanese bakery from the team behind Kusukusu, held its soft and grand openings at The CAMP over May and June, and OCalpha lists it as open since May 2026.
• August. SAD Eyewear opened its first physical store at The LAB on Aug. 21. Landers Supply House, which sells vintage clothing, denim and cowboy boots, followed with its grand opening on Aug. 29.
• September. Maleza began dinner service at The CAMP on Sept. 12 and added full lunch on Sept. 23. Purrs in Paradise, a cat lounge with food and dessert in Suite B3 at The CAMP, had a grand opening set for Sept. 26, per Orange Coast, and the Daily Titan covered the event as it happened.
• October. Ambitious Ales opens at The LAB on Oct. 24.

The early openings mostly serve mornings and afternoons, with burritos, coffee, matcha and pastry. The later ones run into the evening, with a mezcal bar and then a brewery. Zabon Kitchen, a Japanese restaurant, is still listed as "coming soon" in The CAMP's directory, with no opening date posted.

The Dinner Anchor Came From Palm Springs and Santa Ana

Maleza started as the restaurant inside Drift Palm Springs. The Costa Mesa location is its first standalone restaurant, run by Irvine-based TMC Hospitality. Executive Chef Marco Arreguín grew up in Santa Ana. He was chef de cuisine at Taco Maria, where his work helped lay the groundwork for the restaurant's 2019 Michelin star.

The opening menu, as described by What Now OC, includes hamachi aguachile with salsa negra, a masa cornbread made with Oaxacan green masa and smoked butter, branzino Veracruzana, and an eye of ribeye with celery root mole. Lunch and dinner run Wednesday through Sunday. The bar pours mezcal and tequila along with harder-to-find agave spirits like bacanora. It also carries wines from Valle de Guadalupe and Baja Brewing Company's Por Favor IPA.

The layout matters for how The CAMP works at night. Maleza guests can use The CAMP's shared picnic tables and high-tops, and the restaurant's own ipe patio has fire torches for the evening. A sit-down dinner here can spill out into the common area, which makes The CAMP's evening events easier to host.

A Taproom Closed on Randolph Avenue, and a Brewery Announced The LAB

The other evening anchor came after a closure. Bootlegger's Brewery poured its last pints at its Costa Mesa taproom on June 7, after seven years next to The LAB. Back Bay Buzz reported that the closure followed a Chapter 11 restructuring that started late last year and the company's decision to consolidate. The Fullerton brewery opened in Costa Mesa in the summer of 2019, and the taproom built a following for Knuckle Sandwich DIPA and El Chango lager.

The same newsletter passed along a rumor about what comes next:

"word on the street is that Long Beach's own Ambitious Ales is rumored to step in and take over the lease"

Seven weeks later, on July 28, Ambitious Ales announced its second location at The LAB. Neither source confirms that it's moving into Bootlegger's old space, so the lease part is still unconfirmed. Ambitious Ales started in 2012 as five friends with a home brew kit and opened its Bixby Knolls brewery in Long Beach in 2019. Its Costa Mesa grand opening runs from 11 a.m. to midnight, the latest hours on any SoBECA event page this fall.

Three Dates, Two Centers

Each event lines up with something added this year.

The Nov. 5 dinner shows the change most clearly. The CAMP describes it as a coursed, family-style meal at long tables, with "the best of the best from their resident restaurants," wine pairings from Wine Lab and music from DJ Crisanto Santa Ana. Tickets are sold through the event page. The resident restaurants have changed since last year, so the lineup will too.

Farther Up Bristol, the Big Names Are Indoors

At the north end of the corridor, South Coast Plaza's 2026 food openings came from well-known chefs. Tiny's Burger, from Father's Office founder Sang Yoon, was set to open June 15 on the mall's first floor by the carousel. It has Asian-influenced American food and a konbini-style snack shop. Tiffany's Blue Box Café by Daniel Boulud opened inside Tiffany & Co. in Suite 1236, and South Coast Plaza announced on Sept. 8 that it was open to the public. It takes Resy reservations and welcomes walk-ins daily when seats are available. The menu includes Breakfast at Tiffany's, afternoon tea and a California-inspired all-day menu.

Costa Mesa also lost a long-running late-night spot this year. Yard House closed its Triangle Square location on Sept. 13 after nearly 27 years. The OC Register reported that the lease ended, the restaurant chose not to renew, and property management is talking with potential tenants for the space. No replacement has been announced. That leaves the corridor's newest late hours on the SoBECA blocks, with the Oct. 24 brewery opening running until midnight.

One Way to Do the Weekend

1. Saturday, Oct. 10, 2–6 p.m. Start with the city's free Scarecrow Festival at the Lions Park Event Lawn, 1845 Park Ave., which has trick-or-treat stations and a costume parade.
2. Thursday, Oct. 22, evening. Have dinner at Maleza, then walk out to Boo Bash in The CAMP's common area.
3. Saturday, Oct. 24, late morning. Get coffee at Daydrift or pastry at 1954 Egashira Pan, then cross Bristol to The LAB.
4. Saturday, Oct. 24, noon onward. Bring the dog to Howl-O-Ween, stop by SAD Eyewear and Landers Supply House, and stay at Ambitious Ales as long as you like.
5. Thursday, Nov. 5. Buy tickets ahead for the Community Dinner, which brings The CAMP's food lineup to one long table.

Watching which storefronts fill and which go dark is part of how we keep up with Costa Mesa, and Bristol Street has been the busiest stretch in town this year. If seeing the new places on your block has you wondering what your own home is worth now, Mike Doyle can put together a valuation built on recent local sales. Get your instant home valuation.