"Before she would say hi or anything she would ask, 'did you eat yet?'" That is how Sergio González, director of customer journey at Northgate Market and one of Doña Teresa Reynoso de González's 53 grandchildren, described his grandmother to the Daily Pilot this summer. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, he said, her house would fill with anywhere from 30 to 50 people on a given night.
That weeknight table is now the clearest guide to how Mercado González at 2300 Harbor Blvd. has changed. The mercado opened in November 2023 with a fine-dining restaurant as its showpiece. Nearly three years later, its newest additions serve the two meals people eat most often: coffee at the front entrance and pozole for dinner.
The Room Built for Occasions
When Mercado González opened on Nov. 17, 2023, Eater Los Angeles reported hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily and noted that individual vendor hours vary. The grocery hall and its puestos drew the attention, along with Maizano, the upscale Mexican restaurant inside. In November 2024 the Orange County Register reported that "nearly one year after making a splash in Costa Mesa, Maizano quietly closes its doors."
Since then, the mercado's changes have followed a clear line:
- Nov. 17, 2023. Mercado González opens.
- November 2024. Maizano closes about a year after opening.
- September 2025. Vaca Brunch & Beyond moves into the former Maizano room and soon renames itself Pradera Brunch.
- July 16, 2026. Cenaduría Doña Tere opens with a bell-ringing ceremony.
- Sept. 24, 2026. Casa Libre holds its grand opening near the main entrance.
- Nov. 17, 2026. The mercado turns three.
The local food site OCalpha reviewed Pradera in August. It wrote that the brunch spot "doesn't aim quite as high as Maizano" but "may be a better fit for its supermarket home." The restaurant started in Baldwin Park, and OCalpha suggested the name change was likely meant to avoid confusion with Amar Santana's Vaca, a Costa Mesa tapas restaurant that has been open for about a decade. The prices match a weekend breakfast, not a special-occasion dinner. Pancakes, waffles and French toast run $12 to $17, with toppings like tres leches, mazapan, bananas foster and tiramisu. A plain eggs-toast-and-potatoes plate the menu calls the "boring breakfast" is $15, steak and eggs is $23, and licuados and mocktails are $7. At the time of that review, Pradera wasn't serving alcohol yet and was waiting on its liquor license.
Pozole on a Weeknight
The González family already had a puesto honoring its patriarch. Carnitas Don Miguel serves Michoacán-style carnitas made with the same recipe the founder used at the original Anaheim market, where Don Miguel González Jiménez and Doña Teresa turned an old liquor store into the first Northgate Market in 1980. The family now runs more than 40 stores in California. Cenaduría Doña Tere is the matching puesto for the matriarch, and it centers on dinner.
A cenaduría is a small, family-run neighborhood place that serves comfort food in the evening, usually flautas, sopes and tostadas. Sergio González told the Daily Pilot they are common in Jalisco, Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Michoacán. People go to them, he said, because "they want a home cooked meal that taste home cooked and they want it in a way that is fast."
The menu is short. There is pozole verde with chicken and pozole rojo with pork, and you can add pata or cabeza. Team leader Brayan Toledo said the rojo is one of the most popular items, and its base is made in house with guajillo, California and árbol chiles. Beyond the pozole, there are crunchy chicken flautas with cabbage, crema and cotija, sopes de lomo on blue corn with braised pork loin, and tacos de papas.
The pricing shows who it's for. A single portion is $15, the same as Pradera's "boring breakfast." The $70 paquetazo is a family package, and big tables built for multigenerational groups line the wall next to the counter. That $70 order is the closest thing here to the Tuesday-night table at Doña Tere's house.
Coffee at the Front Door
Dinner was covered by July. Mornings still had a gap. Natalie Taormina, co-founder and partner at Casa Libre, told the Daily Pilot that "there was just one thing missing in the market and that's great coffee." Casa Libre had been planned for mid-August. It held its grand opening on Sept. 24.
It is a partnership between the González family and the Taormina/Creighton family. Taormina said both families' grandfathers were business owners in Anaheim who "built our businesses side by side." Taormina and her husband, Jeremy Creighton, were among the original founders of Common Room Roasters. In 2022 they started Freelance Coffee Project inside Passport Brand Design, their branding agency's Newport Beach office.
The café sits near the main entrance, in the space that used to sell fresh flowers. Beans are roasted and packed on site. General manager Joshua González said "the aroma of freshly roasted coffee brings people in." All the coffee is Mexican. Beans will come from places including Huatusco and Motozintla, and right now the featured coffee is from Doña Duglas Molina and her family at El Cielo in Villa Corzo, Chiapas. Her farm takes part in the Café Delas program, which supports women coffee producers.
The drink menu uses Mexican ingredients. The El Jaguar latte is made with a house corn, cacao and chile syrup that tastes like the warm spices in mole. El Colibrí uses a café de olla syrup. Pastries come from the mercado's own bakery, Pastelería La González: a canela roll, a jamón pocket, a chocolate chip galleta and almond croissants. The signature item is the colibrí galleta, a gingerbread hummingbird cookie sweetened with piloncillo and baked in house. You can also buy whole beans to brew at home. In July the mercado told the Daily Pilot that "there are guests that like coffee already made and there are guests that like to buy good, quality, coffee beans."
One Address, Morning to Night
With both new counters open, you can eat at the mercado all day without driving anywhere else. The table below lists the counters by meal. Northgate's puesto pages were first published in 2023, so check current hours before you go.
| Meal | Counter | What to order |
|---|---|---|
| Early coffee | Casa Libre | El Jaguar latte, a bag of Chiapas beans |
| Breakfast | Guisados Las Cazuelas | Breakfast plates, daily caldos |
| Weekend brunch | Pradera | Tres leches pancakes, breakfast burrito |
| Lunch | Carnitas Don Miguel | Michoacán-style carnitas, chicharrón |
| Lunch | Tacos Los Guichos | Street tacos, mulitas |
| Afternoon | Churrería El Moro | Made-to-order churros, hot chocolate |
| Dinner | Cenaduría Doña Tere | Pozole rojo, sopes de lomo |
| Take-home | La Tamalería | Tamales, champurrado |
Two parts of the list are less certain. Northgate's profile for Entre Nos, the cocktail bar, advertises live entertainment Thursday through Sunday. That listing dates from 2023, though, and the mercado's events calendar showed no upcoming events in early October. The OCalpha review praised the mercado's Cevicheria counter, which rotates seven chilled seafood dishes, including aguachiles and a guacaceviche. It's a good stop for anyone who wants seafood without sitting down at Pradera.
If you liked the mercado's opening lineup but haven't been back in a while, a few things have changed. Maizano and its dining room are gone. Breakfast and dinner are both much easier to find. The newest counters were designed for people who come back regularly.
Turning Three
The third anniversary is Nov. 17, about six weeks from now. As of early October, Northgate's mercado events page listed no celebration, so we'll wait for an official date before suggesting any plans. The company has explained how it thinks about the space. "We've been open close to three years now and it is very much the spirit of the organization to always be asking, 'what can we do better?'" Sergio González said in July. He added that whether guests visit every week or every six months, "there will always be something new to explore."
Pradera's pending liquor license is the next change to watch. When OCalpha reviewed it in August, Pradera wasn't serving alcohol, and the site reported that would change once the license came through. For more spots like this around town, see our Costa Mesa neighborhood guide and our list of hidden gems in Costa Mesa.
At Carter Kaufman Team, we keep a running list of the places along Harbor Boulevard that make an address easier to live with day to day, from the best morning coffee to where to pick up a weeknight family dinner. If knowing how far your house is from a $70 pot of pozole is part of how you're planning your next move in Costa Mesa, book an appointment and we'll show you what's within walking distance.
