“The New York Times” once professed, “Considering the number of stars who owned second homes in Palm Springs back in its balmy desert heyday, from the late 1930s through the early 1960s, you couldn’t spill a martini without getting a celebrity wet!” The Coachella Valley certainly was a prolific playground for the luminaries of yesteryear – a sunny but discreet destination for the old Hollywood guard to frolic, let loose and imbibe. Incredibly, many of their former haunts are still in existence today – in one form or another, at least. Read on for a list of five CV-area watering holes where you can throw one back in the footsteps of Tinseltown legends. (Now, if only someone would reopen Lord Fletcher’s!)
XO, Lindsay
This colorful bar is located in the spot that housed legendary tiki lounge Don the Beachcomber from 1953 to 1985. Founded by Ernest Gantt (aka Donn Beach, aka the father of the tiki bar), the site was a bonafide hotspot, attracting such legends as Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner, and Bing Crosby. After sitting vacant for several years, the landmark site was revitalized in 2014 into the Polynesian paradise it is today. With a few of the Beachcomber’s original flourishes retained, Donn’s spirit – and spirits! – are very much alive and well on the premises!
MELVYN’S RESTAURANT & BAR
As the myriad black and white headshots on the walls attest, this watering hole is about as Old Hollywood as it gets! Just a few of the legends who have graced Melvyn’s bar stools since the place was initially established in 1975 include Greta Garbo, June Allyson, Bob Hope, Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, and John Wayne. Frank Sinatra, a regular and longtime pal of founder Mel Haber, even hosted the rehearsal dinner for his 1976 nuptials to Barbara Marx amongst the glamorous confines.
Where else but Palm Springs can you imbibe at Cary Grant’s former guest house? As legend has it, the beloved Copley’s restaurant once served as offsite guest quarters for the movie legend, whose longtime desert homewas located just up the road. Reimagined by chef Andrew Copley in 2004, the site is one of the area’s premier eateries today. In a fun twist, outlines of Grant’s former guest rooms are still clearly visible throughout, a vibrant reminder of the days Hollywood royalty roamed the space.
On the evening of February 25, 1995, Frank Sinatra took to the stage for one final time, executing a flawless six-song set in the main ballroom of the JW Marriott Desert Springs. The resort’s lobby bar pays homage to that landmark last performance via its nightly Sinatra Smash Happy Hour. As the crooner’s tunes play overhead and a flag with his visage drops from the ceiling, bartenders pass out samples of the signature Sinatra Smash cocktail, which, of course, features a hefty dose of Jack Daniel’s, to all in attendance.
This area stalwart was founded by local restaurateur Bob Cunard in 1982 (the very same year that the city of La Quinta was incorporated!) in a nondescript building that initially housed a laundromat. Though the exterior is a bit rough around the edges, the place is exquisitely old school inside, its retro stylings a callback to Hollywood’s golden age. So it is no surprise that such icons as Bob Hope, Ginger Rogers, Johnny Mathis, and Gena Rowlands are all known to have partaken there.