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Sheri’s Palm Springs Area Blog

Whether it be real estate updates, restaurant reviews, events, or highlights of unique homes in Palm Springs, follow Sheri as she covers all that Palm Springs and the surrounding area has to offer.

2017 10 New Restaurant Openings in the Palm Springs Area

Courtesy of Jose Alejandro Bastidas, The Desert Sun

If there is something we love in the Coachella Valley, it’s food.

And this year brought many new restaurants, flavors and concepts to the desert.

The restaurant scene in the desert is ever changing, and it can be difficult to keep track of all the openings and closings going on from west to east.

So, let's take a look back at some of the exciting local restaurants that opened in 2017:

A fast, casual take on Mediterranean cuisine
The shopping centers around El Paseo in Palm Desert are becoming home to many local and chain restaurants.

A sampler platter consisting of falafel, hummus, pita bread, couscous medley and stuffed grape leaves offered at Luna Grill Palm Desert. (Photo: Jose Bastidas/The Desert Sun)

One of the most recent additions is Luna Grill.

A sampler platter consisting of falafel, hummus, pita bread, couscous medley and stuffed grape leaves offered at Luna Grill Palm Desert. (Photo: Jose Bastidas/The Desert Sun)

The fast, casual and affordable Mediterranean eatery opened in October and offers delicious dishes in big portions (plus wine and beer). Some highlights include the falafel as an appetizer, the ground sirloin kabob (around $11) for an entree, and the mini cupcakes for dessert.

Luna Grill Palm Desert is the chain’s 39th restaurant and the company is growing fast. So, don’t be surprised if you see more locations popping up in the near future.

Luna Grill is located at 73-405 Highway 111, Suite 105 in Palm Desert. For hours and more information go to lunagrill.com

More: A closer look at the new Mediterranean restaurant in the valley everyone is talking about

To read about the other nine restaurants that made the list, click here....

From Sheri Dettman
In Dining Around The Desert

From Sheri Dettman
In Dining Around The Desert, Sheri's Palm Springs Area Blog

Dining Around the Desert: Misaki Sushi & Grill, La Quinta

My team and I are fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of good restaurants at our location off of Washington near HWY 111. One of the best, is Misaki Sushi & Grill, just a couple of doors down from us.

I had dined there when it first opened a couple of years ago and to be honest, the service and atmosphere left something to be desired. Fast forward to 2017 and I'm happy to report that the service is wonderful and the food is outstanding. The atmosphere is very basic, but when you are eating fish that simply melts in your mouth, you'll take a plain room!

Ed, Emily and Beverly from my team, order takeout for lunch about once a week. The menu is extensive so there is something for everyone.

I had the pleasure of joining a couple of friends and clients, Karen & David, for dinner at Misaki this past week. Now these two know their food and commented that it was the best sushi that they'd had. I had to agree. I've heard the same thing from our friend Walter.

We enjoyed an Ichiban roll that had spicy tuna, asparagus, cucumber, tuna, yellowtail, red onion and spicy garlic ponzu. Beautiful and delicious.

We had a Refresh roll, yellowtail, tuna, eel, the list goes on and on. David had some of the rolls wrapped in cucumber instead of rice and that was really great.

I think I'll let the photos do the talking from here...stop by Misaki. You will not be disappointed!

46600 Washington St, Ste 1, La Quinta, California

Call (760) 771-3570

California Dreamin’! Reserve Your Seat Now

Click here to reserve your seat and for more information....

From Sheri Dettman
In Lifestyles & Things To Do, Sheri's Palm Springs Area Blog

Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones star in “Just Getting Started”, set in Palm Springs

Courtesy of Xochitl Pena, The Desert Sun

Filmmaker Ron Shelton has always had a warm place in his heart for Palm Springs, especially around the holidays.

He recalls driving through town and seeing plastic icicles dancing in the wind and inflatable snowmen blowing down the street.

"It was around Christmas and it was 105 (degrees) and I was playing golf and there were some dust devils blowing down the street and Christmas trees were blowing off of lots and Dean Martin was being piped in singing 'Let it Snow', and everybody was very happy," he said Wednesday.

That imagery of Christmas in a very un-Christmas-like place always stuck in his mind as a great backdrop for a story.

Enter “Just Getting Started.”

The movie, set in Palm Springs at a lively retirement community called Villa Capri, hits theaters on Friday and stars Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones as competitive alpha males vying for the affection of the same woman played by Rene Russo.

Click here to read more...

From Sheri Dettman

From Sheri Dettman
In Sheri's Palm Springs Area Blog

Food, Wine, & Concerts Coming Soon at CareerBuilder Challenge Golf Tournament

Courtesy of the Desert Sun: Larry Bohannan

Lagardere Sports signed on to operate the PGA Tour’s CareerBuilder Challenge just two months ago. Just two months from this week, Lagardere will unveil many of the changes it hopes to bring to the desert golf tournament.

That might seem like a small timeframe, but officials from Lagardere believe they will be able to showcase their philosophy for the CareerBuilder when the tournament is played Jan. 18-21, 2018, in La Quinta.

“We have been involved in the tournament, sort of consulting (in 2017), so we do know a lot about the tournament, which helps," said Jeff Sanders, the executive director of the CareerBuilder for Lagardere. “There’s no doubt we have a short four months and we are halfway there.”

Sanders and tournament director Pat McCabe both said they are happy with tournament preparations two months out from the 59th annual event, even as they try to expand the focus of the event from a PGA Tour event to a community event featuring concerts, food and beverages.

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Phil Mickelson, a two-time CareerBuilder Challenge champion, is expected to have a larger presence as tournament ambassador in January 2018. (Photo: Richard Lui/The Desert Sun)

“If you are running a golf tournament and you are basing everything on golf, and you are not one of the big tournaments, you better have some other elements,” Sanders said. “What we have found is the golf fan, the Golf Channel viewer, will come out and watch golf. We want all the other people to come out.”

More: Is Bighorn's new $70 million luxurious clubhouse the key to growing a golf membership?

Sanders, who has a home in La Quinta and who played in the tournament's pro-am six times in the 1980s, openly says the model Lagardere is bringing to the CareerBuilder is the same model the company has used the last two years in operating the Safeway Open in Napa, the opening event of the PGA Tour’s wrap-around season in October.

That model includes offering upgraded food, beer and spirits and concerts for a single-day ticket price. It also includes continuing to focus on the $5.9 million tournament, which will again feature World Golf Hall of Famer and two-time desert winner Phil Mickelson as event ambassador.

“Certainly, we are comfortable and confident that the golf fan is going to come, just due to the fact that it is 156 of the best players in the world,” McCabe said. “As Jeff mentions, all this great stuff, food, wine, concerts, we can only control what happens outside the ropes. What we want to do is focus on that. It has been about golf here for a long time, but Phil Mickelson, 42-time champion, winningest player in President Cup history and he plays maybe 20 events of the 49 in a year, we’ve very fortunate for him to be on the list."

Canadian fans watch from the 17th hole during the CareerBuilder Challenge at the Stadium Course at PGA West in January. (Photo: Harry How, Getty Images)

Hudson Swafford is the defending champion of the CareerBuilder Challenge, earning his first tour win at the event last January on the Stadium Course at PGA West.

Changes coming to this year’s tournament include two concerts, one Friday of tournament week and one Saturday, to be held on the driving range at PGA West.

The tournament is also debuting a new 8,500-square-foot fan pavilion, sponsored by Von’s, overlooking the 18th green of the Stadium Course. Sanders said another important change will be eliminating upgraded tickets for certain on-course hospitality tents, opening those tents to anyone with a ticket to the tournament.

More: Three things to remember as golf courses open from overseeding

“We are going to open ourselves up to the community and let everyone come in for $30 (pre-sale single-day ticket price), watch Phil Mickelson play golf, go into the 18th green, air-conditioned, first-class Von’s Fan Pavilion, and then go to a concert,” Sanders said. “We want to send a message for everyone to come to this event and have fun. Come out and watch Phil and the other 155 great players, go into the Von’s Pavilion, get yourself a glass of wine or a cocktail, get yourself a nice meal.”

PGA Tour golfer Danny Lee participated in the CareerBuilder Challenge golf tournament in 2016. (Photo: Richard Lui/The Desert Sun)

The bands for the two concerts will be announced soon, Sanders said, as will a new presenting sponsor for the tournament. CareerBuilder continues as the tournament’s title sponsor for the third year of its six-year deal with the PGA Tour.

Sanders added that he hopes the tournament will find an identity it has been lacking with the coming changes, and that one of those identities will to be strongly identified with the city of La Quinta. The tournament is played on the Stadium and Jack Nicklaus Tournament courses at PGA West in La Quinta and La Quinta Country Club.

“We want this to be the La Quinta event,” Sanders said. “Indian Wells is tennis, Indio is concerts, music, and La Quinta is PGA Tour golf. This is La Quinta’s golf tournament.”

From Sheri Dettman
In Lifestyles & Things To Do, Sheri's Palm Springs Area Blog

This Hotel Will Deliver a 10-pound Doughnut to Your Room

Courtesy of the New York Post

Dough-nut disturb because your wildest pastry fantasies are about to come true.

Thanks to an objectively sweet promotion from the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, Calif., guests can now have a whopping 10-pound pink doughnut delivered straight to their door. As the main event of the hotel’s new $219 “Donut Disturb” package, the hefty treat, which measures three feet wide by a foot high, will be wheeled straight to the room with a side of milkshakes when guests are ready for a serious sugar high.

While the lines are fine as to whether the confection is technically a doughnut or a cake, FoodBeast reports that the layers of Tahitian vanilla cake, cream and raspberry jelly smothered with pink cream frosting, macaron crisps and sprinkles classify it as “Homer Simpson’s version of heaven.”

Included with the purchase of the Donut Disturb package, guests also receive a $50 hotel credit for the spa, dining, or golfing — though it would likely prove difficult to get up from the couch, let alone golf, after chowing down on the doughnut.

For context, the average doughnut weighs about 1.7 ounces, meaning that you’d have to eat about 95 donuts to equal this 10 pounder, but apparently, the chefs didn’t stop at just 10 pounds when launching the promotion. In celebration of the Donut Disturb package, the hotel baked a massive 100-pound version of the frosted doughnut, according to KMR.

“I couldn’t find a doughnut of this proportion anywhere on the planet. So maybe we should have brought Guinness (World Records) in just to see if we’re actually making a record here today,” said executive chef Peter Smith.

When eyeing up the mammoth treat — that takes 3-4 people to move — one hotel guest from Australia couldn’t resist gushing. “It looks like unreal, it looks like it’s fake, it looks so amazing.”

From Sheri Dettman
In Dining Around The Desert, Lifestyles & Things To Do

From Sheri Dettman
In Dining Around The Desert, Lifestyles & Things To Do, Sheri's Palm Springs Area Blog

Dining Around the Desert: Cunard’s Sandbar, La Quinta

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Bob & Tina Cunard in the Halloween Spirit!

Bob Cunard, the proprietor of Cunard’s Sand Bar, is a living ‘old school legend’ here in the desert. He’s owned multiple restaurants and bars, was a top amateur golfer in his younger years and has lived a very interesting life. I believe that Bobby knows more people in the desert than just about anyone else I can think of. In fact, Bob introduced Bill to me 12 years ago! So for me, it's like family there.

I tend to have the same thing all the time, mainly because it's the only place that I know that has it and it's a favorite. CALAMARI STEAK – ABALONE STYLE - Tender calamari, breaded and served with lemon, butter, and capers. And of course, the warm bread, house salad, loaded baked potato and a glass of wine.

This visit, my friend Dean ordered the same dish, except he had a lot of their tasty veggies instead of the baked potato.

If you haven't been to Sandbar before, it's time to go! They have music every night, and the list of guest singers is impressive and entertaining.

Hacienda San Angel, Puerta Vallarta

Hacienda San Angel Gourmet

I recently spent some time with friends in Puerta Vallarta and since one tends to see the same people that come to our lovely valley all around the world, I thought I'd share this unique restaurant.

The highlight of our trip was at the beautiful, Hacienda San Angel.

Hacienda San Angel creates memorable upscale Mexican and international meals at Hacienda San Angel Gourmet, the hotel’s highly regarded, full-service roof top restaurant. A superbly elegant and scenic experience, Hacienda San Angel Gourmet is open to hotel guests and the public for dinner and a seasonal Sunday brunch, both by reservation only. Patrons enjoy 180-degree views of the town, azure Banderas Bay and Puerto Vallarta’s evening fireworks display.

A past filled with glamour and romance has led to a present brimming with intimate sophistication at Hacienda San Angel. Though this one-of-a-kind hotel gem has changed over time, its spirit of indulgence, passion and subdued elegance lives on.

The late Richard Burton purchased the Hacienda’s main villa as a Valentine’s Day gift for his wife, Susan in 1977, after falling in love with Puerto Vallarta as he filmed John Huston’s The Night of the Iguana there in the mid 1960’s. The cult classic film put Puerto Vallarta on the map as a favorite vacation spot for the international glitterati, including Burton’s ex, Elizabeth Taylor, who owned a house mere blocks away from Susan’s. Perched on the hillside above the famed Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Church, the villa, aptly named Casa Bur-Sus, embodied coastal charm and Mexican architectural tradition.

Main Content

Sheri’s Palm Springs Area Blog

2017 10 New Restaurant Openings in the Palm Springs Area

Dining Around the Desert: Misaki Sushi & Grill, La Quinta

California Dreamin’! Reserve Your Seat Now

Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones star in “Just Getting Started”, set in Palm Springs

Food, Wine, & Concerts Coming Soon at CareerBuilder Challenge Golf Tournament

This Hotel Will Deliver a 10-pound Doughnut to Your Room

Dining Around the Desert: Cunard’s Sandbar, La Quinta

Hacienda San Angel, Puerta Vallarta

Hacienda San Angel Gourmet

Palm Springs VintageVibe Fest

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