OC LIVE
Old Towne coffee-and-tea bar where everything pours from a tap.
CONTRA runs the least conventional coffee bar in Orange. There is no espresso machine driving the menu. Instead, everything pours from a tap wall: nitro, cold brew, iced coffee, iced tea, and a proprietary lineup of specialty drinks. The concept came from two former food scientists who wanted to apply the craft-brewery model to coffee and tea.
Founders Paul Del Mundo and Julie Nguyen launched CONTRA in 2015 as pop-ups and farmers-market appearances before landing the permanent Old Towne location just off the Orange Plaza. Both come from food-science backgrounds, and the tap concept is the direct result: consistent extraction, no barista-to-barista variance, every drink dialed in and ready to pour.
Clean, quiet, and curated. The space reads more third-place-library than café rush. Good for solo work, small conversations, and unhurried tastings.
The records lining the back of the room aren't decor. Toward the back of the space, Contra houses Resident Vinyl, a roughly 250-square-foot independent record shop that opened inside the café in July 2024. The selection is deliberately small and curated: new releases plus indie, punk, and hip-hop, alongside turntables, apparel, and posters. Owner Owen Ela grew up in Orange and spent years in music marketing (Epitaph, Goldenvoice, Live Nation, and the Observatory in Santa Ana) before running the shop. Resident Vinyl currently posts daily hours of noon to 6:00 PM, and hosts listening parties and record-release events on top of the retail hours.
Gold Rush: Vietnamese-style iced coffee made with oat milk. The signature move on the menu.
Dirty Horchata: house horchata with espresso-roast coffee. Sweet, cold, a little rich, exactly the drink you want on a warm Old Towne afternoon.
Flight of Four: sampler pour of four different drafts. Order it if you can't pick.
Location: 115 N. Orange St., Orange (just off the Orange Plaza) · Hours: Roughly Mon–Sat 8 AM–10 PM, Sun 9 AM–7 PM (verify current hours before visiting) · Resident Vinyl hours: Currently noon–6 PM daily, per residentvinyl.com · Parking: On-street around the plaza
If you're espresso-first, this isn't the shop that will convert you. If you're curious about draft coffee, or you want a room that lets you actually settle in (with records to browse mid-flight), CONTRA is one of the most interesting menus in the county. The Flight of Four is the fastest way to figure out what you like.