Wine Lab will soon set up Camp in Costa Mesa
The Wine Lab is poised to have a baby.
Let me explain. For years, the friendly spot on West Coast Highway in Newport drew a lively evening crowd. Owners Chris Ann and Roger Richards have an irresistible combination of charm, marketing savvy and great taste. They’ve been especially good at zeroing in on Central Coast winemakers and have hosted many in their smallish storefront over the years.
Later this month, Wine Lab will open a second store. This one will be in The Camp, that trendy mall near the corner of Bristol and Baker in Costa Mesa where Taco Asylum, Native Foods, Patagonia and other hipster magnets live.
I took a peek at the place on Thursday and it looked beautiful – mid-century modern is clearly the Richards’ preferred look – but far from finished.
Looks can be deceiving. Chris Ann assures me that they’ll be open by the middle of this month.
“We’re waiting on health department approval, then city approval. Without the first you can’t get the second.”
The new location will be a little bigger than their Newport place, Richards said – about 1,300 square feet. And she expects it to attract a different clientele.
“Being near The Lab (another trendy mall across Bristol St.) and in The Camp, we like the trendiness of the area. People who come in to try Native Foods or Taco Asylum will be walking right by our store. They might be interested in some cool wines.”
Those cool wines include reds and whites drawn from small kegs – an increasingly popular serving method. There will be six wines on tap – three white and three red.
“We’ve been seeking out some small producers that make great wines,” Chris Ann said. “Tablas Creek, Melville. They’ve been putting their Pinot Noir (in kegs), and they’re already sold out of it.”
Chris Ann says she and her husband have no plans to close the Newport place, even though she acknowledges their lives will get much busier when the Costa Mesa Wine Lab opens.
“We plan to operate both locations. We have a good customer base in Newport. But it’s more of an evening crowd. Here we’ll be able to attract a lot more middle-of-the-day customers.”
Chris Ann plans to offer more food in the Costa Mesa location as well.
“We’ll have fresh bread from Sadie Rose Baking Company. I really love their product.”
The Wine Lab plans to take advantage of a nearby outdoor space at The Camp.
“They have something here at The Camp called the Treehouse. It’s an open air space with a fireplace. Our goal is to do trade tasting up there. In the evening it would be open to the public.
“The beauty of it is you can taste a wine up there and if you like it, you can come downstairs and buy it from us.”
I wish Chris Ann and Roger the best for their new place. To me, The Camp seems like more of a mid-day spot than a Happy Hour gathering place, and Costa Mesa isn’t much of a wine-with-lunch community. Sadly, not every business has found its niche at The Camp.
But perhaps their shop will provide a magnet for a different kind of crowd.
