Crave Palm Springs Moves to Larger Digs – With a View

Décor, desserts 'inspired by architectural design'

Pamela Bieri Restaurants

 

Crave, Palm Springs first “dessert restaurant,” offers a wonderful upstairs corner location with front and rear outdoor patios providing a spectacular view of the mountains and Palm Canyon’s street scene below at North Palm Canyon Drive and Amado Road.

The expanded location will also be open longer hours, making it a hip spot to hangout and extend the evening.

The entire place from its décor to the well-structured desserts are “inspired by architectural design,” says principal owner and creator Davy Aker. Taking Palm Springs mid-century modernism a step further,

Aker notes, “Everything we build is a combination of unique flavors, wonderful textures and the simplicity of clean design."

Menu to Expand

Currently the dessert menu ranges from individual cakes, fruit tarts, glasses desserts and cookies, with French house-baked breakfast croissants and New York style bagels served on weekend mornings. (Pictured below is the French lemon ice cream with pistachio brittle).

But Aker plans to soon expand the menu with more savory items.drop

“Going in to December, we’ll add some small plates Saturday and Sunday for lunch — small salads, crudités and possibly some charcuterie dishes,” he says.

Aker’s 25-year background in designing and marketing consumer package goods comes into play in designing and packaging Crave’s two specialty house coffees – the Steel House, a bold blend; and the Glass House, a lighter roast – both carrying Crave’s simple square-within-a-square logo. The “house” coffees, of course, reflect two design and structural elements that typify mid-century modern houses.

Starting out in a tiny storefront on North Palm Canyon, Crave was envisioned as a place where patrons can slowdown and connect over desserts and drinks in a trendy minimalist space.

Customers Become Partners

During its two years at that location, Aker’s list of patrons has grown, and among frequent guests were Raymond McCallister and Larry Abel, co-owners of Abel McCallister Designs, a top event production company in New York and Los Angeles.

McCallister and Abel are also savvy Palm Springs business owners who created the Raymond | Lawrence retail “pop up” incubator in Palm Springs’ Uptown Design District, as well as Socialize Palm Springs and most recently, The Party Lab, also a store-within-a store concept. Related vendors operate kiosks in a fun mini-shopping mall experience.

Abel and McCallister fell in love with Crave and Davy’s business sense that also focuses on style, design and a unique experience.

“Crave was our favorite place,” Abel says. “We would go there for desserts at night and then he had these wonderful croissants and hand-pressed coffees, so we would be there every morning and evenings, and we said, ‘We have to be part of this.’”

So the partnership was inevitable; Crave measured up as a good fit for McCallister and Abel’s “vertical integration of resources.”

Location, Location

They began looking for a larger location.

“Davy actually found this space,” says Abel. “He brought us up to look at it – it was an old biker bar with reds, browns, stickers and neon. We saw the two balconies and looked in the window. It took five weeks – from Labor Day – to remodel everything.”

The new Crave emerges in a sleek, minimalist space with lots of glass, white metal lights over white modernist tables and chairs, curved metal hand railings on both the front and back patios, a cool galvanized metal bar, Crave’s signature green square-within-a-square grid, and its name in lights behind the bar.

Crave, 301 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 200, Palm Springs (760) 469-4587. Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 6-10 p.m.; Friday, 3-11 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

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VIDEO: Here is quick tour of Crave from its soft opening Oct. 18. And yes, the elevator is working.

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