Michele Stueven
As Modernism Week kicked off over the weekend in the Coachella Valley amid comfortably lower temperatures than usual for this time of year, more than 30 food and wine vendors convened at the Classic Club golf course in Palm Desert for the Greater Palm Springs Food and Wine Festival.
Presented by the Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella and part of the Desert Woman’s Show, some of the valley’s most popular and new restaurants lined up outdoors along the golf course.
Big Rock Golf & Pub at Indian Springs from Indio teed off lunch with 120 pounds worth of brilliantly deconstructed barbecue deviled eggs – diced whites and whipped yolks on a dollop of barbecue sauce topped with pickled onions and microgreens in a cup.
Wildest Restaurant and Bar served up Bloody Mary ceviche with banana chips and the new Cowboy Cantina in Palm Desert handed out barbecue beef sliders topped with coleslaw. Coachella’s 29 Brews was on hand to help wash down spicy wontons from Malie Asian Cuisine and the Daou Vineyards rose was the perfect dipping vehicle for The Real Italian Deli’s biscotti.
BBQ deviled eggs from
Big Rock Golf & Pub at Indian Springs (Michele Stueven)
The super popular Greek Festival was back after a two-year hiatus to celebrate its 25th anniversary at the St. George Greek Orthodox Church. Fans lined up for 40 minutes to indulge in grillfest classics like lamb chops, octopus, gyros, loukaniko sausage and souvlaki, and plenty of Greek beer and wine. It was a sweet tooth’s paradise with mountains of baklava, galaktoboureko and warm Loukoumades, little bite-sized fluffy sweet honey balls.
The organizers planned on 35% more for this year’s event for a two-day period. By the early afternoon of the first day they were over 100% anticipated guests.
Next up: The celebrity chef-studded three-day Palm Desert Food and Wine Festival of lunches, brunches and tastings with more than 40 restaurants and 60 wineries, craft beers and spirits starting on Friday, March 24. The chef roster starts off with Tyler Florence, Aarti Sequeira, Gale Gand, Michael Hung from the Colony Club in Palm Springs and Top Chef Fabio Viviani.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.