desert-hot-springs-restaurants

Where to Eat in Desert Hot Springs

This trio of restaurants gives you a taste of what the city offers.

Emily Chavous Foster Current Guide, Restaurants

desert-hot-springs-restaurants
The Gray Cafe offers a mostly organic vegan menu.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY @BEARLEADERCHRONICLE

Dillion’s Burgers and Beers

64647 Dillion Road
Desert Hot Springs
760-774-7131
Dillionsburgersandbeers.com

There’s desert modern, and then there’s desert authentic — the kind of dusty, no-nonsense joints with dark walls and hay barrels that specialize in ice-cold beer and hearty roadside-style burgers. Dillon’s falls into the latter category and, known for late-night live music, has been a fixture on the scene since 1946. (People still talk about the time The Doors played here.)

South of the Border

11719 Palm Drive
Desert Hot Springs
760-251-4000

This unassuming family-owned restaurant serves traditional Mexican fare in a cozy, diner-meets-old-town-taqueria setting. Funky teal booths mingle with folklórico paintings and vintage-sombrero wall art, fostering an ambiance that’ll transport you south of the border … especially after a couple margaritas. It’s meant to feel homey and is the kind of place to go when you’re craving fresh guacamole and loaded burros.

See related story: Where to Eat in La Quinta.

The Gray Café

13104 Palm Drive
Desert Hot Springs
760-251-2443
thegraycafe.com

This holistic café and health food store is all about delivering not only plant-based, healing fare to the masses but also cannabidiol-friendly, hemp-based offerings (a growing trend in California’s post-pot-legalization world). The mostly organic vegan menu includes an array of veggie-packed burgers, housemade seitan, breakfast eats like the hemp-tempeh scramble, and plenty of wraps and spring rolls, while the raw juice bar offers up a variety of nutritional powerhouses made with fresh-pressed hemp and almond milks.

vegan

• See related story: Where to Eat in Coachella.

3 QUESTIONS FOR Stephanie Gray

owner, The Gray Café

What’s most gratifying about having your restaurant here?
The amazing feedback and hearing from locals. It’s been great seeing people really start taking to plant-based dishes. People who are not even vegan, they tell me they love it here.

Why offer CBD on the menu?
I had heard of the great benefits of CBD and how it can help with all of these different things people have trouble with like inflammation. I was using a tea company that was doing CBD-infused teas and I decided I wanted to do more so I brought in a whole line.

What’s your favorite thing about living in Greater Palm Springs?
The scenic views and all of the hiking spots. And I was raised in Desert Hot Springs, so I like still being around all of people I grew up with. It’s just home to me.

thegraycafe

See related story: Where to Eat in Indio.