Dining Out Goes Viral During Restaurant Week

More than 70 restaurants across the Coachella Valley offer prix fixe dinner menus

JIM POWERS Arts & Entertainment, Restaurants

Their Palm Springs house features an expansive kitchen area.

But when Betsy Smalley and Garth Gilpin travel from Pasadena to the desert, they don’t want to cook.

They don’t have to go very far to find a nearby restaurant. In recent years, the restaurants have come to them with the addition of places like Jake’s and Trio to the neighborhood.

Both establishments will participate in the sixth annual Palm Springs Restaurant Week, which begins May 31 and runs through June 16. More than 70 restaurants across the Coachella Valley are involved.

Customers can take advantage of three-course, prix fixe dinner meals ranging in price from $26 to $38 per person. No passes or special coupons are required.

The savings are not limited to just food during the promotion. Participating hotels will offer specialty room rates, upgrades in room amenities, while local attractions like the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and The Living Desert will also have special rates and perks.

Six years ago, 30 restaurants, hotels and attractions participated, and this year there are more than 100. Newcomers like dish Creative Cuisine in Cathedral City, Workshop Kitchen & Bar in Palm Springs and Cork & Fork in La Quinta this year continue to bring in new blood.

The Palm Springs Desert Resorts Restaurant Week Association, which this year created the theme, “Eat, See. Stay.”, conduct Restaurant Week. The association represents a cross-section of restaurateurs and hoteliers from the Coachella Valley, plus operators of local attractions and publications and executives of local tourism boards.

For more information, visit the Palm Springs Restaurant Week website.