Travel Costa Mesa Blog
Visit California’s Dream Eater Finds #DreamEats in Costa Mesa
Visit California is the tourism organization representing the state of California, and this year has focused on promoting foodie travel and culinary tourism. To help highlight the amazing cuisine found throughout the state, Visit California sent the California Dream Eater on a road trip…and one of his stops was Vaca in Costa Mesa!
The California Dream Eater, Chase Ramsey, whimsically travels around California finding the best eats. Before his annual road trip, Chase asked Instagram followers to post pics of their favorite city in California for the best food, with the hashtag #DreamEats. After a couple of months of intense competition, Costa Mesa’s social media followers came through with enough #DreamEats posts to win a spot on the road trip!
For his online YouTube episodes, Chase filmed at Vaca restaurant, and ST Patisserie in The OC MIX in Costa Mesa. Vaca, helmed by “Top Chef” Season 13 runner-up Amar Santana, is a Spanish eatery featuring a variety of sought-after Spanish meats and cheeses, tapas and paella, including an artfully curated Spanish-only wine list.
Chase also stopped by ST Patisserie Chocolat. ST Patisserie is owned by Master Pastry Chef Stéphane Tréand. Chef Tréand was the 2008 World Pastry Champion and is an MOF (Meilleurs Ouvrier de France), the highest honor a pastry chef can earn.
Chase also visited several other foodie hotspots in Costa Mesa which have been featured on his Instagram, including Blackmarket Bakery, Portola Coffee Lab and Water Grill South Coast Plaza.
“We’re so excited to have welcomed the California Dream Eater to Costa Mesa,” said Paulette. “We competed to be one of the cities on Chase’s list because we knew Costa Mesa was one of the hottest up-and-coming foodie destinations in Southern California. We truly appreciate the support of our social media followers and community partners like the City of Costa Mesa, SOCO Collection, The OC MIX, The LAB and The CAMP and South Coast Plaza in helping us win a spot as one of the highlighted destinations.”
Chase will be posting videos and images of his experience in Costa Mesa on his YouTube channel and Instagram account, @CaliforniaDreamEater. Travel Costa Mesa will be sharing and reposting on their Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts, @travelcostamesa. With over 28,000 Instagram followers and 147,000 YouTube views, California Dream Eater’s highlight of Costa Mesa cuisine will help to show even more travelers why Costa Mesa is the perfect place for an Eatcation!
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Posted in Food
It’s National Taco Day! 5 Great Taco Spots in Costa Mesa
Ah, the taco…that perfect handheld bite of tortilla, filled with delicious meat or veggies, cheese and whatever else creative minds can throw at you. While Costa Mesa is definitely known for its abundance of amazing homestyle Mexican restaurants, you can also find upscale taco dishes that reinvent the old favorites. Best of all, it’s National Taco Day, AND Taco Tuesday combined! Take a look at 5 of our favorite taco spots in town.
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Carving Pumpkins for a Great Cause at The OC MIX – OC GUTS!
On October 24, the most creative will gather in Costa Mesa for an epic pumpkin-carving competition to serve a very worthy cause. The primary goal of OC GUTS is to unify the creative community in support of a worthy and meaningful charity, Make-A-Wish® Orange County and the Inland Empire — an organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.
GUTS allows local artists and creatives to enter a friendly competition to see who has what it takes to carve the best pumpkin of the year. The pumpkins are judged by respected leaders in the design community and the event encourages strong local involvement and support by allowing guests to attend, bid on creative one-of-a-kind pumpkins to take home, vote on a favorite pumpkin and enjoy the festivities of a high-energy event.
This community-wide event will bring in the best creative talent in the area, as well as the support of generous sponsors. Sponsors include 454 Creative and the American Institute of Graphic Arts, among local businesses.
Check our calendar for more details on this great event!
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Posted in Events
3 Top Costa Mesa Stops for National Waffle Day
Today’s National Waffle Day, and we love any excuse to celebrate this fluffy, carb-loaded treat that works great in a variety of delicious ways. Eat it plain and topped with butter and syrup or whipped cream as a decadent dessert, or as part of a savory dish like fried chicken and waffles or a breakfast sandwich. Open faced, sandwich style or folded like a taco, waffles work in many versatile ways to create a delicious dish. Here’s three of our favorite places to get this criss-crossed delicacy:
IRON PRESS
Iron Press is located in The OC Mix shopping center, and was one of the anchor restaurants of this culinary hotspot. Making waffles hot and fresh in front of you with the kitchen tool it’s named after, Iron Press serves sweet or savory waffle dishess, tater tots, ice cream and craft beers along with great events like tap takeovers.
PLUMS CAFE
Plums Cafe is well known by locals for its amazing breakfast and brunch. One of our favorite dishes is the Northwest Berry Waffle, simply a large waffle with fresh berries and cream. Add some Oregon pepper bacon for a little bit of salty-sweet heaven.
PANCAKES R US
You’ve been to Toys R Us, and Babies R Us, but have you ever been to Pancakes R Us? It’s a Costa Mesa breakfast staple serving eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and of course pancakes galore, but they’ve also got some great waffles.
Happy National Waffle Day!
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Posted in Food