Verdant is a new cafe and coffee bar that will debut within the Orange County Museum of Art when it officially opens on Oct. 8 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus. Located on the third floor terrace level of the brand-new fantastic building along 333 Avenue of the Arts in Costa Mesa, Verdant will be overseen by chefs Ross Pangilinan and Nicholas Weber, Orange County Register reports.
“Upstairs, we’ll have a few sandwich refrigerators and a couple electric ovens. We’ll have to be smart with the menu,” Pangilinan tells Orange County Register, adding that they will also be utilizing a production kitchen located on the ground floor. “The menu is a plant-forward menu but we want to do some fish dishes too.”
Pangilinan is known for his restaurants throughout Orange County, including Costa Mesa’s Terrace by Mix Mix, Long Beach’s ReMix Kitchen Bar, and Santa Ana’s Mix Mix Kitchen & Bar. Chef Nicholas Weber was the executive chef at 24 Carrots Catering Events and Downtown Disney’s Catal.
The chefs met and became friends while working at the Patina Restaurant Group and most recently, they opened a restaurant together at South Coast Plaza. Populaire, a modern Cal-French bistro, debuted this summer.
Weber tells Orange County Register that Verdant’s menu will be “a mix of Ross and me… We’ll put our heads together and Philip Tangonan, who helped us open Populaire, will move over here to Verdant when we open.” The cafe itself will be located next to the museum’s learning annex, giving the chefs an opportunity to collaborate with artists who are being exhibited.
With its location on the terrace, Verdant will offer impressive views of the museum’s structure. Not only will it be a space for visitors to refresh and grab a bite to eat, the chefs envision Verdant as an event space, which apparently is already in high demand. “There will be a cocktail program and there are pocket doors that open up to give (the space) that outside feel,” Weber says.
For more information, visit ocma.art and follow @cateringbymixmix on Instagram for updates.
