The old IHOP on South Indian Canyon Drive is getting a mariscos menu. The former KFC on South Palm Canyon is set to become a coffee shop. A boutique that once held Francesca's on North Palm Canyon is turning into dining room seating. Palm Springs is adding restaurants this season, and most of them are moving into buildings that locals already know by their previous tenants.
Read through the addresses together and you see where the changes are happening. Most of the new arrivals are downtown and south of Tahquitz Canyon Way. Two of this year's closures and departures are on the north end of Palm Canyon Drive, and the third is on East Tahquitz. In the latest reports I could find, only two of the new places are confirmed open. Everything else is still a target date.
The new places are moving into old buildings
Here's a list of what's coming, with the space each one is taking over. Desert Dispatch put most of it together in its Sept. 28 roundup of new and upcoming Palm Springs restaurants:
- 425 S. Sunrise Way, formerly Mario's Italian Café, is now Those Italian Cousins
- 471 S. Indian Canyon Drive, formerly IHOP, is becoming Guamúchil's second location
- 175 N. Palm Canyon Drive, formerly Francesca's, is becoming indoor seating for Clandestino
- 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 150, formerly Over the Rainbow, is becoming the first storefront for Con Amor, Nina y Leon
- The former KFC on South Palm Canyon Drive is becoming Coffee Dose
A few more aren't tied to a named former tenant. Breakfast Republic is headed for 333 S. Palm Canyon Drive. One More Bite Dumpling House is going in at Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way, next to El Patron. Big Juice looks set for Thompson Palm Springs at 414 N. Palm Canyon Drive.
So a lot of the new activity is on South Palm Canyon, South Indian Canyon, and Sunrise Way, the areas south of the downtown core. Clandestino and Big Juice are on North Palm Canyon, but they're still near the downtown blocks, well short of the Uptown Design District.
Two doors are confirmed open
Those Italian Cousins took over Mario's old space at 425 S. Sunrise Way. The Palm Springs Tribune reported it open on Sept. 21. Cousins Maurizio Tunis and Patrick Abbate run it, and their family roots are in Sardinia. The menu includes things you don't often see on local Italian menus. There's pinsa, a Roman flatbread with a lighter crust than pizza, plus ricotta-and-truffle sacchetti and beef short ribs with gnocchi. For dessert there's seadas, a Sardinian fried pastry filled with cheese and finished with orange zest and honey. It serves lunch and dinner every day except Wednesday.
Bird is at 211 E. Palm Canyon Drive, next to Mr. Lyons. It's a café during the day and a wine bar at night. It comes from F10 Hospitality, the local group behind Mr. Lyons, Birba, and Cheeky's. The coffee is from Onyx Coffee Lab, a specialty roaster based in Arkansas. In August, the Coachella Valley Independent reported that F10 was hoping to open in late September. By the Sept. 28 roundup, it was open.
Both are on the south side of downtown, which fits the pattern above.
Everything else is a target date, and some are firmer than others
Desert Dispatch's Sept. 29 newsletter still described the rest of these projects as upcoming, and I haven't found a later report saying any of them opened. Here they are, sorted from the firmest information to the least:
Business | Address | What's been said publicly |
|---|---|---|
Breakfast Republic | 333 S. Palm Canyon Dr. | Expected in October; no specific day announced |
Con Amor, Nina y Leon | 1775 E. Palm Canyon Dr., Suite 150 | Expected in late September; no confirmation it opened |
Guamúchil | 471 S. Indian Canyon Dr. | Owners told Desert Dispatch early November |
Coffee Dose | Former KFC, South Palm Canyon Dr. | Target reportedly December 2026, after an earlier target slipped |
One More Bite Dumpling House | Palm Canyon Dr. at Tahquitz Canyon Way | Preparing to open; no date |
Clandestino indoor dining | 175 N. Palm Canyon Dr. | Expansion planned; no date |
Big Juice | Thompson Palm Springs, 414 N. Palm Canyon Dr. | "Appears" to be headed there; no date |
Breakfast Republic's official locations page still lists the Palm Springs address as "coming soon." It's a San Diego-based chain that already has a restaurant in Palm Desert, and the menu runs from Oreo pancakes to shrimp and grits.
One More Bite's timing has already moved once. At the end of August, the owners told Desert Dispatch that the Palm Desert location would open in early September and Palm Springs would follow later that month or in early October. The Sept. 28 update still had it preparing to open, with no date given. When it does open, it'll be downtown's first dedicated dumpling and dim sum spot, serving soup dumplings, pork-and-chive dumplings, potstickers, and noodles.
Con Amor, Nina y Leon has been a micro-bakery selling weekly pastry boxes. The roundup listed fig-and-olive cake and raspberry-chocolate tarts among its offerings. Until the storefront opens, the pastry boxes are still available to order through the bakery's website.
Clandestino is the one project on this list that's growing in place. It already has a big outdoor patio at that corner. The new indoor room next door should add a lot of seating for the hottest and coldest parts of the desert year.
The north end of town lost familiar names
The departures are in different places than the arrivals.
TRIO at 707 N. Palm Canyon Drive, in the Uptown Design District, closed after 17 years. CityWatch reported the closure on Aug. 11. It opened in 2009 in a 1953 building designed by John Porter Clark and Albert Frey. The closure looked sudden, since OpenTable was still taking reservations in late July. If you miss it, Trio @ PSP at the Palm Springs airport is still open, according to Desert Dispatch's September newsletter.
Saffron planned to close its location at 1107 N. Palm Canyon Drive on Oct. 3. Owner Ashley Stein says it'll reopen several months from now in a larger space, with a new menu and covered parking. The new location hasn't been announced. An August guide to summer restaurant breaks, which said its own dates weren't verified, listed an Aug. 31 reopening at the old address. The move announced since then replaces that date.
Alice B. at 1122 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way won't reopen as a restaurant after its summer break, NBC Palm Springs reported Sept. 17. Gertie's Salon & Bar is staying open at the same site.
So two longtime North Palm Canyon restaurants closed this season, one temporarily and one for good. Neither stretch has a newcomer named to replace it yet.
October's food calendar still runs through established restaurants
The newcomers aren't open in time for the city's first big fall weekend. Modernism Week's October festival runs Oct. 15–18 with more than 50 events, per KESQ. This year it adds a Fall Dining Series, and the venues still open on it are all established restaurants, with none of the newcomers among them:
- Eight4Nine Restaurant & Lounge, Oct. 15, $190, in the Uptown Design District
- Bar Issi, Oct. 15, $230
- King's Highway at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club, Oct. 17, $120
- Mr. Lyons Steakhouse, Oct. 17, $230
The schedule published in late July also listed a Trio Restaurant dinner on Oct. 16. TRIO closed in August, so if you were planning on that one, check its status with Modernism Week before you count on it. The Mr. Lyons dinner puts two F10 Hospitality spaces on the same block that weekend, since Bird is next door. The festival also adds Modernism Week After Dark events at Spirit Animal and the Amigo Room. The Palm Springs Modernism Fall Show runs Oct. 17–18, with a preview party on Oct. 16, according to The Palm Springs Post.
Other dates through early November that will shape where people eat downtown:
- VillageFest is back on its season hours, 6–10 p.m. Thursdays, an hour earlier than its 7 p.m. summer start. The official calendar lists Oct. 15, 22, and 29.
- Palm Springs Pride Equality Walk is Saturday, Oct. 17, starting at 8:30 a.m. in the Arenas District, per KESQ.
- Scoop Palm Springs returns Nov. 1, noon to 4 p.m., at Downtown Park, per the Coachella Valley Independent.
- Palm Springs Pride, the 40th celebration, runs Nov. 6–8, with the parade on Palm Canyon Drive at 10 a.m. on Nov. 8, per KESQ.
Guamúchil's early-November target falls in the same week as Pride. If it holds, the old IHOP on South Indian Canyon will be serving aguachiles and seafood towers when the parade crowds come downtown.
I keep an eye on which Palm Springs storefronts are filling up and which ones are going quiet, whether you're thinking about a place near the new openings or you just want to know what's next for your block. If you'd like to talk through how these changes are playing out on the streets you care about, reach out to Matt Roth. Let's Connect.
