Devour the Desert
A Palm Springs Food & Culture Journal
The Local Culture | The Oasis of Palm Springs: Nothing This Beautiful Happens by Accident
Palm Springs is a city built on optimism.
It is also built on plumbing.
Visitors rarely think about this. They are understandably distracted by mountain views, perfectly chilled martinis, impossibly blue swimming pools and citrus trees that appear to have signed a long-term lease with the sun.
Everything feels effortless.
It isn't.
The Local Design | You're Just My Type: Palm Springs Fonts
There are few places where a house number can make you smile.
Palm Springs is one of them.
Because in Palm Springs even the house numbers were designed.
That sounds like a minor thing until you start noticing it — the tall, geometric address numerals on a Krisel home, the crisp lettering on a vintage motel marquee, the careful typography on a mid-century storefront.
These weren't afterthoughts.
The Local Celebs | King of Cool: Steve McQueen’s High-Velocity Palm Springs
If you think the mid-century modern vibe of Palm Springs was all about polite golf claps and Sinatra sipping martinis in a tuxedo, you are missing half the horsepower.
Enter Steve McQueen.
The Local Celebs | Frank’s Kind of Town: Why Sinatra Lost His Heart to Palm Springs
For more than 50 years, Frank Sinatra didn't just visit Palm Springs—he helped create it.
While he kept addresses in New York and Los Angeles, "Ol' Blue Eyes" famously considered the desert his true center, his haven and, perhaps most importantly, the one place where he could almost relax.
The Local Flavors | Palm Springs Cocktail Culture: How a Desert City Turned Leisure Into an Art Form
Palm Springs has always understood the importance of a good drink.
Not merely the liquid itself, mind you. Plenty of places serve cocktails. Palm Springs elevated them into a social activity, a fashion accessory, a networking tool, and occasionally a competitive sport.
The Local Landscape | The Fault Isn’t in the Stars. It’s Under our Feet
How colliding continents created the Coachella Valley, our famous springs—and the earthquake we're all politely pretending isn't coming.
Some cities were built beside rivers.
Some grew around natural harbors.
The Local Culture | Palm Springs and the Art of Belonging
There are many reasons people fall in love with Palm Springs.
Some come for the sunshine. Some come for the architecture. Some come for the mountains, the swimming pools, the golf courses, the date shakes or the promise that January can feel like April.
But one of Palm Springs' most remarkable qualities is something less tangible and far more important: its long-standing culture of acceptance.
The Local Guide | Unwritten Rules of Palm Springs: What the Brochures Forgot to Mention
Every city has its own unwritten rules. Palm Springs simply has better weather while breaking them.
People arrive expecting sunshine...
And they're rarely disappointed.
But what does surprise people is that sunshine isn't merely weather. It's an architectural feature, a lifestyle choice and occasionally a force of nature that transforms your rental car steering wheel into a branding iron.
Palm Springs has its own customs, rhythms and peculiar logic.
The Local Flavors | The Best Palm Springs Happy Hours: A Civic Institution Disguised as a Cocktail
In many places, happy hour is a financial strategy.
In Palm Springs, it borders on a civic institution.
Palm Springs may not have invented happy hour, but it has certainly embraced it with unusual enthusiasm.
The Local Flavors | The Cheese Blintzes at Liv's
Nestled inside the Palm Springs Art Museum, Livs Palm Springs occupies one of the city's most charming dining spaces. Part museum café, part neighborhood gathering place, part hidden oasis, it somehow manages to feel both sophisticated and relaxed.
The Local Flavors | Leave & Return, Stay & Build, and Come From Away: How Palm Springs Became a Destination for Culinary Talent
For decades, the accepted path for ambitious chefs was straightforward: leave. Leave the desert. Leave home. Find the big cities, the Michelin stars, the celebrated mentors, and the kitchens where careers are forged under pressure and repetition.
Some still do.
The difference is that now some of them are coming back.
Others never leave at all.
And increasingly, accomplished chefs from around the world are choosing to come here.
Together, they are creating something Palm Springs has never quite had before: a mature culinary identity.
The Local Culture | When Palm Springs Exhales
Every year, sometime around early June, Palm Springs exhales.
The snowbirds head north. The festival crowds disappear. Restaurant reservations become easy to find. Businesses close for the season. Parking spots materialize like miracles. The traffic on Palm Canyon Drive dwindles to a trickle.
And suddenly, the city feels empty.
The Local Flavors | A 48-Hour "Design & Dine" Itinerary in Palm Springs
To really see Palm Springs, you have to look past the signs on Palm Canyon Drive. Locals know a lot of the magic is in the interplay between Mid-Century Modern architecture and the desert’s gourmet "hidden gems.” Use this 48-hour itinerary—inspired by our guided walking food tours—to eat like an insider while walking through history. Joining one of our walking food tours will give a lot more insight into our local food culture and history, but here’s some ideas to do on your own, in addition to a tour.
The Local Culture | Goodbye Norma Jean, Hello 1,037 Marilyns: Palm Springs Throws a World Record Birthday Party
On the weekend of what would have been her 100th birthday, Palm Springs did what Palm Springs does best: it transformed nostalgia into spectacle, glamour into community and history into something delightfully fun.
The Local Flavors | Why Palm Springs Is California’s Newest Foodie Capital
We’ve long been known for our pools, celebrities, golf and mid-century modern architecture, along with old-school steakhouses and "date shakes.” But things are changing. Think elevated food prepared by chef-led restaurants, artisan wine and craft cocktails. Our little oasis is becoming a culinary destination rivaling much bigger cities.
The Local Architecture | Atomic Dreams & Coffee Shops: John Lautner, Googie and the Palm Springs State of Mind
By the 1950s and 60s, Palm Springs had become an unlikely playground for architectural experimentation. Hollywood stars escaped Los Angeles for weekends in the desert, bringing money, glamour, and a taste for the futuristic. Architects arrived eager to test radical ideas under endless blue skies.
The Local Celebs | To Catch a Taste: Cary Grant, Mid-Century Style and the Flavor of Palm Springs
If you have ever watched Cary Grant effortlessly hold a martini, outrun a crop duster, or romance Grace Kelly on a sun-drenched balcony, you may have wondered: How did he do it? How did he become Cary Grant?
The Local History | Meet the Pioneer Women Who Created Palm Springs
Before Palm Springs was a mid-century modern oasis filled with Hollywood glitz, it was a rugged, isolated desert outpost. The oasis of palm trees and hot springs was a challenging place to live, yet in the early 20th century, a remarkable group of determined women settled this arid valley, laying the foundation for the glamorous resort town we know today.
The Local Architecture | Glass & Steel: A History of Palm Springs Modernism
Palm Springs is a time capsule of Mid-Century Modern architecture, the greatest concentration of this style in the world.
This is Us
Meet the founders and owners of Artisan Food Tours and hear why they created their new gourmet food tour company in Palm Springs.