The still-unnamed project, first reported by San Diego Magazine, is expected to open at 8495 La Mesa Boulevard and will combine several businesses under one roof: a coffee shop, all-day café and restaurant, wine and beer bar, and small bottle shop. The roughly 5,000-square-foot building sits between La Mesa Village and MacArthur Park and is being envisioned as a neighborhood gathering place that can function from morning coffee through dinner and drinks.
Billy and Suzanna Beltz, the husband-and-wife team behind Lost Cause Meadery and Oddish Wine, are spearheading the project and partnering with Bica co-owners Manny Da Luz and Charlie Knowles, who will oversee the restaurant and coffee side of the operation. Despite Bica's involvement, the La Mesa restaurant will not be another Bica location and will receive its own identity. The project brings together two hospitality teams that have built followings around decidedly unconventional approaches to food and drink.
Lost Cause Meadery was founded by the Beltzes in 2017 after Billy Beltz spent years making mead as a homebrewer. The business quickly gained national and international attention, including a remarkable showing at the 2019 Mazer Cup International, where Lost Cause earned five medals and tied for the most awards won by any meadery in the competition that year.
The company's specialty is mead, an alcoholic beverage traditionally made by fermenting honey with water and yeast. While the drink has ancient roots, Lost Cause built its reputation around experimenting with fruit, barrels, different honeys and other ingredients rather than treating mead as a historical novelty.
That same experimental streak eventually led the Beltzes into wine. They launched Oddish Wine after beginning to experiment with winemaking around 2020, deliberately stepping away from conventional wine rules in favor of lower-intervention wines, co-ferments and unusual combinations of grapes and other fruits. Oddish has produced beverages incorporating ingredients including blueberries, pineapple, guava and quince, as well as cider, vermouth, amaro and canned spritzes.
Oddish currently operates alongside Lost Cause, Deft Brewing and Pizza Cassette at The Gärten in Bay Park, a communal outdoor drinking and dining space that helped establish the Beltzes' preference for social spaces built around multiple types of beverages rather than a traditional standalone tasting room.
The new La Mesa project appears to take that idea considerably further. According to San Diego Magazine, the building will begin operating in the morning with coffee and lighter breakfast offerings before transitioning into lunch and dinner service later in the day. Plans call for a wood-fired oven and rotisserie, though a detailed food menu is still being developed.
The beverage program is expected to feature Oddish wines and Lost Cause meads alongside products from other local producers, with beer, cider, wine and other beverages represented. The team is also planning an aperitivo component with lower-alcohol cocktails and spritzes, continuing Oddish's preference for drinks that fall outside more rigid traditional categories.
A small retail section is also planned, with an emphasis on natural wine and cider from independent producers in San Diego and Baja California. San Marcos-based Raging Cider & Mead is among the producers mentioned for the future shop. On the culinary side, bringing in Bica gives the project another compelling local connection.
Da Luz and Knowles opened Bica on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights in 2023 after developing the Cops and Robbers supper club. Both are San Diego natives who spent years cooking elsewhere before returning home, including Da Luz's tenure at acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant Gjusta and Knowles' experience at The Lodge at Torrey Pines and Tender Greens.
Bica began primarily as a daytime café focused on coffee, local seafood, seasonal produce, tartines, smoked and cured fish and other relatively simple dishes built around high-quality ingredients. It quickly developed into considerably more than a coffee shop.
The restaurant later expanded into dinner service and became a gathering place for chefs, hospitality workers, neighborhood groups and creatives. Bica has hosted chef pop-ups, industry nights, film screenings, running clubs and community events, gradually developing a reputation as much for the atmosphere surrounding the restaurant as for the food itself. That community-oriented approach appears central to the La Mesa project.
Rather than creating a space aimed exclusively at either nightlife or daytime dining, the Beltzes have said they want a place where families can spend time during the week while still offering interesting food and drinks for adults. The families behind both businesses have young children themselves, and plans include eventually developing an outdoor dining and drinking area along with a kid-friendly component.
The building itself will also play a significant role in the finished concept. Dating to the 1940s, the property has housed a succession of neighborhood businesses over the decades, including a market, butcher shop, children's resale store, electronics operation, dry cleaner, bicycle shop and, more recently, the Maytag Home Appliance Center.
Rather than stripping the structure of its history, the team reportedly intends to preserve as much of its original personality as possible. Among the elements expected to remain is the building's distinctive barrel-shaped wood roof. Large windows facing the street will be used to brighten the interior, while the overall design is intended to feel creative and individual rather than like a newly constructed restaurant shell. The team has assembled a largely San Diego-based group for the project, including Tecscape Design, contractor CLTVT and design consultant Carly Miller-Chen, who also owns South Park boutique Ayi.
The Beltzes goal is not to recreate North Park or Normal Heights in East County, but to build something they believe La Mesa does not currently have: a design-forward, family-friendly venue capable of serving coffee at breakfast, food throughout the day, and wine, mead, beer and cocktails into the evening.
There is still considerable work ahead. The concept has no final name, the restaurant component has not yet been named, and many menu details remain under development. If everything moves according to plan, the new restaurant, café, wine bar and bottle shop is expected to open by the end of 2027 at 8495 La Mesa Boulevard.
Originally published on September 8, 2026. Information first reported by Beth Demmon of San Diego Magazine.
