Palm Springs Restaurants in Fall 2026: What's Changed

A red bird mural was painted this month on the bend of East Palm Canyon, across Highway 111 from Mr. Lyons. Below it, F10 Hospitality opened Bird, a daytime café at 211 E. Palm Canyon Drive. It serves Onyx Coffee Lab espresso and monkey bread, and founder Tara Lazar was baking in the kitchen on opening morning. The café opens daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. to start. Its wine program is set to grow "as Palm Springs moves toward the busier season," according to Palm Springs Bites' account of the opening.

That timing explains the rest of this fall's dining news. A Palm Springs restaurant hands in its verdict at the end of September, but most of the deciding happens in July and August, while dining rooms are dark and regulars are out of town. The summer of 2026 made those decisions in an unusually visible way. The clearest way to read the fall map is to follow what happened during the break.

The summer hiatus is when spaces change hands

Alice B., the restaurant Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken run inside the Living Out community near downtown, went on its usual seasonal summer closure. While it was closed, Gertie's Salon and Bar took over the space, and the Coachella Valley Independent reported in mid-September that Gertie's will stay there permanently. It is still serving the biscuits Alice B. was known for, and you can buy them frozen to take home.

The timing makes the ending stand out. Michelin added Alice B. to the 2026 California guide in May, and four months later Feniger announced the dining room would not reopen. She called the honor a closing note in her announcement:

"This year, we were honored to be included in the Michelin Guide, a reflection of the incredible support you've shown us, the dedication of our amazing team, and a fitting note on which to close this chapter."

The work goes on without a dining room. As NBC Palm Springs reported, Alice B. and Border Grill Catering will still cater events across the desert cities. The chefs also plan Thanksgiving dinners that customers finish at home, with pre-order details still to come. If you had Alice B. on your holiday plans, that pre-order is how you keep it there.

August took one of Uptown's originals

The second big change landed in early August. Trio, at 707 N. Palm Canyon Drive, closed after nearly 17 years. The restaurant sat beside The Shag Store and had been open since 2009. In those days the Uptown Design District was a satellite to downtown. Today it holds five of the city's eight Michelin-listed restaurants, and Palm Springs Bites credits Trio as one of the first restaurants to bet on the district.

This closure also started well before August. Co-founder Tony Marchese, who later co-launched CV Harvest Box and co-produced Palm Desert Food & Wine, sold Trio about a year earlier, and operations had visibly scaled back since then. The restaurant's own statement pointed to industry challenges and the difficulty of keeping going long-term. As of late September, local coverage had not reported a new tenant or plan for the space. That makes the orange-branded corner one of the open questions on North Palm Canyon going into the season.

A third change is still underway. A community-sourced summer schedule had Saffron Restaurant and Lounge returning from its break on Aug. 31. In mid-September, owner Ashley Stein announced that Saffron will close at 1107 N. Palm Canyon Drive on Saturday, Oct. 3. She plans to reopen in a few months at a larger location, still unannounced, with a new menu and covered parking, according to KESQ. If you go before Saturday, it is your last meal in the current room.

Most of the regulars came back on schedule

Against those changes, the usual September returns mostly happened as planned. Johnny Costa's Ristorante at 440 S. Palm Canyon Drive is celebrating 50 years in business this year, and it reopened Sept. 4 after its summer break. The other return dates below come from a roundup of seasonal breaks published Aug. 12. The roundup says it was built from community-shared schedules and was not independently checked, so call ahead if one of these is your standing reservation.

Two of those dates are still ahead. SO•PA's Oct. 9 reopening comes straight from L'Horizon's own dining page, and Jake's brings back brunch and lunch on Oct. 14. Most of the list has quietly done what it does every year. That consistency is what makes Alice B. and Trio stand out against it.

The businesses that opened into the heat

While some dining rooms were dark, a different group of operators opened in June and July, the slowest stretch of the year. The Desert Sun's late-June photo tour of downtown found a cluster of new storefronts already open. They included Backstory, an artisan gift shop at 150 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, with co-owner Mary Hennesy behind the counter, and FP Movement at 414 N. Palm Canyon Drive. Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile opened at 115 S. Palm Canyon Drive in mid-June.

On the food and drink side, these places are open now and some may be new to you:

• After Hours, a second-floor lounge at 369 N. Palm Canyon Drive from Jamie De la Torre, Michael Sandoval, Pedro Jiménez and Fernando López
• SoCal Sunset, an elevated-American restaurant at the same address
• Luchador Brewing Company, whose taproom at 250 S. Palm Canyon Drive was open by late July
• Nashville Country Kitchen & Bar, two doors down at 262 S. Palm Canyon Drive, which reopened after a false start
• Palm Asia Mart, at 127 E. Amado Road, with made-to-order sushi to go and packaged snacks

Bird opened at the other end of the summer. Its building used to be F10's office and commissary, and both still run in the back. The front is now the café, and sandwiches and salads are being added to the lunch menu as it settles in. These openings put more places in the core of South Palm Canyon and the blocks around it. The summer losses came on East Tahquitz and in Uptown.

Still waiting on a date

The next round of changes has been announced but not dated. As of late September, none of these had a confirmed opening day in local coverage:

1. Con Amor, Nina y León, the micro-bakery known for weekly pastry boxes, is moving into the former Over the Rainbow space at 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 150.
2. Big Juice has a location coming to the Thompson Palm Springs at 414 N. Palm Canyon Drive.
3. Sushi and Mariscos Guamúchil is set for the former IHOP at 471 S. Indian Canyon Drive.
4. Charly's Neighborhood, from the owners of Heyday Burger, is planned for the former Emerald and Sage space on North Palm Canyon. Its concept and timing have not been confirmed.
5. One More Bite Dumpling House downtown had finished construction by July but was still waiting on permits, and the city's tourism bureau still lists it as opening soon.
6. Coffee Dose, a café, brunch club and drive-through, is listed as opening soon at 725 S. Palm Canyon Drive.
7. Saffron's new home is expected roughly two months after its Oct. 3 closing, at an address not yet announced.

The next fixed date on the downtown food calendar is easier to plan around. The Scoop Ice Cream Festival returns to Downtown Park on Sunday, Nov. 1, from noon to 4 p.m., with more than 20 local 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.

At Levi Knapp Real Estate, we follow these openings and closings for the same reason you do. Knowing which corners of Palm Springs gained a café, lost a landmark or are waiting on a new tenant is part of knowing the town. If you're watching how a stretch of Palm Canyon or Uptown is changing and want a local read on it, we'd be glad to talk. Schedule Your Concierge Consultation.