Downtown Mesa Main Street Restaurants: Coffee to Cocktails
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"A great surprise for us because the community's really embracing it." That's how Crust Concepts owner Michael Merendino described Bombolino to Phoenix New Times in early August. Bombolino is the coffee and gelato counter he hadn't planned to open at all. According to New Times, the idea came from the hotel. The hotel asked about coffee, and the Crust team talked it over.
Because of that, one ground floor on Main Street now covers the whole day. Bombolino opens at 8 a.m. Crust serves dinner. The Nightingale, a hidden bar, stays open past 10 p.m. on weekends. Downtown Mesa has announced a long list of projects, and this block at 233 E. Main is the part you can actually visit in October 2026. Most of the rest has 2027 next to it.
The building has taken a while. Crust and its hidden bar were first announced for Mesa in 2023. The project stalled when the original developer filed for bankruptcy in 2024. A new developer took over the following year, and the plan shifted to include a hotel. The City of Mesa says Soltrust and Hospitality Capital Partners bought the property and turned the planned apartments into a boutique hotel.
The 233 Suites is a 76-room hotel under Hyatt's Unscripted brand, and it held its ribbon cutting on August 6, 2026. The project also includes 13,000 square feet of new office space. It sits on Main Street just east of Hibbert. New Times reported that all three restaurant concepts were in their soft opening by early August, with a grand opening planned for Aug. 27.
New Times also noted that Crust anchors the east edge of a district that has recently seen some restaurant and bar closures. That makes the block more useful than a typical opening. It's an anchor at the end of the street, and it stays open all day.
Bombolino's page lists hours of 8 to 11 a.m. every day. From Wednesday through Sunday it reopens in the evening and stays open until 9 p.m., or 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The morning menu has specialty lattes, croissants and breakfast burritos. The name comes from the Italian doughnut, which comes traditional or stuffed and glazed. There's also gelato and affogato. If you want everything at once, order the Bomba, a doughnut filled with gelato. Merendino came up with it after eating gelato with a doughnut on a trip to Sicily.
The suppliers are local. Villa Dolce in Glendale makes the gelato, with flavors like New York strawberry cheesecake and a kid-friendly Cookie Monster. Mesa's own Buttered Up Bakery makes the pastries and doughnuts, and the Crust team bakes and finishes them on site. Merendino also said he expects Bombolino desserts to show up on Crust's menu this fall.
Crust Simply Italian started in Scottsdale in 2007. The Mesa restaurant is its fifth Valley location, after Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert and Peoria. The menu is East Coast-style Italian: personal-size rustica pizzas, New York-style pies big enough for a family, chicken Parmesan, and pasta with alfredo, bolognese or vodka sauce.
The dining room and bar cover 7,300 square feet. Floor-to-ceiling windows look out on a patio facing Main Street.
The hours matter if you're planning a weekday lunch:
So early in the week, Bombolino's morning window is the only food service on this ground floor before 4 p.m. From Thursday on, Crust serves lunch too.
Every hidden bar in the Crust group is named for a bird. The Peoria location has The Raven, and Mesa has The Nightingale. New Times describes a dark, jewel-toned room with faux birds and cages hanging from greenery over the bar. Paintings of birds in jaunty hats hang above a long velvet booth, and the bar has its own private patio.
Two sources disagree on how you get in. New Times says you go through Bombolino. Crust's own description tells guests to look for a hidden door inside Crust at The 233. The operator gives the address as Suite 105. If you're meeting someone there for the first time, ask the host at either counter.
The cocktail list mixes classics with house drinks. The Dead Canary is a dark rum espresso martini with Licor 43, cold brew and coconut. The Tail Feather combines cucumber-infused mezcal, mint syrup, lime and soda water. The food menu leans Italian, with charcuterie, fried calamari, meatballs and pappardelle bolognese.
The posted hours don't all agree either. The Nightingale's own page says it's closed Monday and Tuesday, open 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and open 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The same page also shows a 9 p.m. Sunday close. Crust's restaurant page lists Friday and Saturday service until midnight. On a Sunday, call ahead before you plan a nightcap.
This block matters most on the nights downtown already draws a crowd. All of these are free or open to the public, and the first three are on or near Main Street:
Sunset Market and the festival nights on Oct. 16 and 17 fall on Fridays and Saturdays, when Bombolino's evening counter, Crust and The Nightingale all keep their longest hours. Crust closes at 9 p.m., so a dinner reservation fits before or after Sunset Market, and The Nightingale's weekend hours cover the rest of the night.
The 233 isn't the only new arrival. Blue Corn Cafe & Bakery opened at 19 W. Main St. on June 2. Downtown Mesa's listing shows hours of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Those hours cover late morning and early afternoon, right in the gap between Bombolino's morning close and Crust's dinner opening early in the week.
Mesa's July 2026 retail review also lists Twisterz, the frozen dessert shop at 58 W. Main St., and Mesa Padel Club among downtown's recent additions. Mesa Padel Club is near Main Street and Country Club Drive and held a grand-opening weekend in April. The same review notes that PHOENIX magazine named Downtown Mesa the Best Downtown in its Best of the Valley 2026.
This is where The 233 stands out. Several of the openings people talk about for downtown aren't open yet.
Pinnacle Brewing plans a taproom at 104 W. Main St., Suite 101. PHOENIX magazine reported that all brewing will stay in Scottsdale. Local coverage in May gave an early-2027 opening target. The city's liquor-license page shows an application for "Altar at Pinnacle Brewing" at that address. Its status is pending a City Council meeting, and a hearing is tentatively set for Oct. 5, 2026.
Main Street Market, a food hall that doubles as a restaurant incubator, is listed as under construction at 111 W. Main St. ABC15 reported in July that it was expected to open in early 2027 with seven restaurant hopefuls.
Further out, Mesa's economic development office lists an AC Hotel, the Edge on Main project with 423 apartments, and a proposed Culdesac development at Site 17 with about 1,000 residential units. These are still pipeline projects. None of them changes where you can get coffee or a cocktail this month.
For now, The 233's ground floor is the one spot on Main Street where you can get coffee at 8 a.m. and a cocktail at 10 p.m. without leaving the building, as long as you check The Nightingale's Sunday hours first.
If spending more evenings on Main Street has you thinking about how close you'd like to live to it, Colleen Marie Heaney can walk you through the downtown Mesa streets near The 233 and the Arts Center, and give you a free valuation of your current home so you can plan your next step with real numbers.
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