Workshop Kitchen & Bar

"If you’ve heard of one restaurant in Palm Springs, chances are it’s Workshop. This modern restaurant right in downtown is largely credited for bringing the whole farm-to-table (desert-to-table?) movement to PS. And even after all these years - and plenty of new competition - it’s still one of the best. Their large courtyard is open from 6-10pm during the week and until 11pm on the weekends, call (760) 459-3451 to make a reservation." - brant cox

"Even if you aren’t too familiar with Palm Springs, chances are you’ve still heard of Workshop. Open since 2012, this stunning, all-concrete restaurant on Palm Canyon not only proved farm-to-table menus were possible this far into the desert, but arguably put the entire city on the modern dining map. And today, it’s still hitting on all cylinders. With everything from goat cheese pierogis to duck fried rice to doro wat chicken, the menu covers a lot of ground. Make a reservation far in advance—the restaurant still books up quickly." - Brant Cox

"Farm-to-table food may seem like an impossibility in the middle of the desert, but nearby Coachella Valley is actually one of the nation’s most productive regions. Here you’ll find that bounty on full display. A dedicated garden in Rancho Mirage, along with a sizeable herb planter behind the kitchen, furnishes peak-season produce for wood-fired dishes like a flat iron au poivre, and even a simple yuzu tart is prettied up with farm-fresh raspberries and wood sorrel. The setting is a Spanish-style building from the 1920s, while the interior is a modernist temple of polished concrete—a mist-cooled courtyard provides additional seating. Special touches like house-made ginger beer distinguish an exemplary bar program, with cocktails both classic and creative." - Michelin Inspector

"Farm-to-table food may seem like an impossibility in the middle of the desert, but nearby Coachella Valley is actually one of the nation’s most productive regions. A dedicated garden in Rancho Mirage, along with a sizeable herb planter behind the kitchen, furnishes peak-season produce for wood-fired dishes like a flat iron au poivre, and even a simple yuzu tart is prettied up with farm-fresh raspberries and wood sorrel." - The MICHELIN Guide

"Regulars at Workshop Kitchen + Bar know not to get too attached to any one dish. Innovative chef/owner Michael Beckman—who trained in Lyon and worked in Berlin—might be serving honey-lavender glazed black cod one night; a sausage, rapini, and fennel pizza another; and his signature burger (with pastrami and wagyu oxtail) the next. Diners in the know ask for the off-the-menu whole striped sea bass, grilled in the wood-fired oven with seasonally shifting ingredients. The adventurous menu is a big draw, to be sure, but so is the magical setting: The 90-year-old Spanish-inspired building—once an art gallery and movie theater—features 27-foot-high ceilings, which the trendsetting architecture firm SOMA updated with poured concrete for an industrial cathedral aesthetic. (The work won it a James Beard Design Award.) If you’re there for Sunday brunch or an early dinner, ask for booth #7, which is flooded with natural light, or a table in the whitewashed courtyard. Cocktails such as the Mountaineer—made with little-known Génépy des Alpes liqueur, pineapple and lime juice, and bitters—are just as revelatory early in the evening as they are on late weekend nights, when the place is bustling."