VillageFest now starts at 6 p.m. on Thursdays, an hour earlier than it did all summer. The City of Palm Springs moved the street fair to fall hours beginning October 1. From June through September it ran from 7 to 10 p.m. The booths along Palm Canyon Drive between Baristo and Amado Roads are setting up while there is still some light.
The restaurants behind those booths are changing in a particular way. Nearly every food opening announced for Palm Springs this fall is going into a building that had an earlier life the town remembers. That includes a former Italian café, a former IHOP, a former KFC, a former clothing boutique and the space a well-loved bar left behind. This season's new places will be easy to find, because residents have been driving past their addresses for years.
Former Mario's, Former IHOP, Former KFC
Most of the list below comes from Desert Dispatch's September 28 roundup, which counted one new restaurant already open and eight more openings or expansions on the way. Here is each one next to what used to be there.
New tenant | Address | What was there before | Status as last reported |
|---|---|---|---|
Those Italian Cousins | 425 S. Sunrise Way | Mario's Italian Café | Open |
Bird | 211 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite C | Next door to Mr. Lyons | Open |
Gertie's Salon and Bar | Living Out, 1122 E. Palm Canyon Drive | Alice B. | Open, now permanent |
Clandestino indoor dining | 175 N. Palm Canyon Drive | Francesca's boutique | Expansion underway |
Guamúchil | 471 S. Indian Canyon Drive | IHOP | Targeting early November |
Coffee Dose | South Palm Canyon Drive | KFC | Targeting December 2026 |
Con Amor, Nina y Leon | 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 150 | Over the Rainbow | Storefront announced |
Breakfast Republic | 333 S. Palm Canyon Drive | Not reported | Expected in October, no firm date |
Those Italian Cousins stands out because it keeps the building Italian while changing the region of Italy it cooks from. Cousins Maurizio Tunis and Patrick Abbate have family roots in Sardinia. Their menu includes pinse, the Roman flatbread with a lighter crust than pizza, along with ricotta-and-truffle sacchetti and seadas, a fried Sardinian pastry filled with cheese and finished with orange zest and honey. They serve lunch and dinner every day except Wednesday.
Bird comes from F10 Hospitality, the local group behind Mr. Lyons, Birba and Cheeky's. It runs as a café during the day and a wine bar in the evening, and it pours coffee from Onyx Coffee Lab, the Arkansas specialty roaster. Because it sits next to Mr. Lyons, one company now runs both a morning and a late-evening address on the same stretch of East Palm Canyon.
Gertie's took over Alice B.'s space at Living Out when Alice B. went on summer hiatus. The Coachella Valley Independent reported in September that the change is permanent and that Gertie's is still serving the biscuits, which you can also take home frozen.
Clandestino is staying put and taking the space next door. The restaurant is best known for its large patio. Moving into the former Francesca's storefront at 175 N. Palm Canyon gives it indoor seating at the same downtown corner.
Two more openings don't fit the table neatly. One More Bite Dumpling House is getting ready to open at Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way, next to El Patron, as downtown's first restaurant devoted to dumplings and dim sum. Big Juice, the local cold-pressed juice and smoothie company, appears to be headed to the Thompson Palm Springs at 414 N. Palm Canyon Drive. No opening date has been announced.
Fifty Years at 440 S. Palm Canyon, and One Address Not Yet Named
Johnny Costa's Ristorante at 440 S. Palm Canyon Drive is the clearest example of a familiar address in Palm Springs. The restaurant marked 50 years in business in September. KESQ reported a "Golden Anniversary" celebration and ribbon-cutting with the Costa family, Chamber representatives and community members. NBC Palm Springs reported that Mayor Ron deHarte attended.
Saffron Restaurant and Lounge is going the other way and leaving its address. Its final day at 1107 N. Palm Canyon Drive was Saturday, October 3, and the restaurant's website lists it as temporarily closed during the move. Owner Ashley Stein has said Saffron will reopen in several months in a larger location with a new menu and covered parking. As of late September, the new site had not been announced. In a season of new tenants moving into known buildings, it is the one well-known name still looking for a new home.
Thursday Night Moves Up an Hour
The earlier VillageFest start matters most for the restaurants on the list above. The City describes the fair as nearly 200 booths, with downtown shops, restaurants and galleries staying open late. The official VillageFest calendar shows the 6-to-10 p.m. hours for October 8, 15 and 22.
On Thursday, October 29, the fair takes a different shape. "Monsters on Main Street" moves the Halloween edition onto Tahquitz Canyon Way between Indian Canyon Drive and Palm Canyon Drive. It starts at 6 p.m. and runs until the candy runs out, with candy stations, a haunted bus and a costume contest at 7 p.m. One More Bite's corner sits right where that stretch meets Palm Canyon.
Modernism Week Opens Familiar Buildings Too
Modernism Week's October festival runs October 15 to 18. It is the smaller, four-day counterpart to the 11-day February event. The organizers list more than 50 public activities. Like the new restaurant tenants, the festival's draw is a chance to go inside buildings that most residents only see from the street.
Palm Springs Life's October 2 preview and the festival's ticketing site list these events:
- Marquee at Twin Palms, the featured home tour, at $40 for a 30-minute visit, with slots on October 15
- Blue Skies Village in Rancho Mirage on October 17, with seven mobile-home interiors, a hidden garden and the clubhouse designed by William F. Cody
- A Sackley Stunner: The Liever Residence Tour from the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, also on October 17
- Frey House II, at $75 for the tour or $125 with a reception
- The new Aerial Tramway experience on October 15 and 16, which pairs architectural interpretation with lunch at Peaks Restaurant, listed at $170 for 3.75 hours
- Mod With a Twist at Ocotillo Lodge, a series of five short presentations from October 15 to 17
- Sunset at The Lautner Compound on October 16 and 17
The festival also has a food side, and it runs through some of the same addresses. The new Fall Dining Series includes Eight4Nine and Bar Issi on October 15, then King's Highway and Mr. Lyons on October 17. Wined-Up takes place October 15 at Hall Palm Springs inside the Thompson, the hotel where Big Juice is expected to open.
Some tickets are already scarce. When the ticketing page was captured, the Premier Double Decker bus tour was marked sold out, and the page says all sales are final with no refunds or exchanges. The February festival is already on the calendar too. Modernism Week 2027 runs February 11 to 21, with a schedule preview on October 25 and tickets going on sale November 1 at noon PDT.
The Rest of the Calendar, Through Pride
- October 16, 7 p.m.: Halloween Movie in the Park at Sunrise Park, showing Monster House.
- October 17, 1 to 3 p.m.: The Floating Pumpkin Patch at the Palm Springs Swim Center, 405 S. Pavilion Way.
- October 24, 6 to 9 p.m.: Festival of Frights: Neon Monster Mash at Sunrise Park.
- October 30 and 31, from 2 p.m.: Halloween Palm Springs in the Arenas District, produced by Hocker Productions, with live performances from 4 to 10 p.m. each night and free admission.
- November 1, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The City's Día de los Muertos brunch at Demuth Community Center, 3601 E. Mesquite Avenue.
- November 1, noon to 4 p.m.: Scoop Palm Springs returns to Downtown Park with more than 20 ice cream, gelato and paleta makers. A $38.25 ticket covers ten 2-ounce tastings, and proceeds go to the LGBTQ+ Center's Community Food Bank.
- November 6 to 8: The free Palm Springs Pride festival spreads across Palm Canyon Drive, Arenas and Museum Way.
Guamúchil's early-November target puts its opening in the former IHOP on South Indian Canyon Drive close to Pride weekend, just a few blocks from the festival.
When you're ready to think about a midcentury home in Palm Springs, whether it's one you saw on a Modernism Week tour or one you already own, Craig Chorpenning offers private consultations and video-led property tours that show how a home's design history affects its place in the market. Request a private consultation to talk through what your property's story is worth to today's buyers.
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