{"id":121523,"date":"2019-12-12T16:01:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T00:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sunset.com\/?page_id=121523"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T00:44:18","slug":"restaurants","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sunset.com\/food-wine\/restaurants","title":{"rendered":"Restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While Palm Springs\u2019<\/a> slow season is upon us, you\u2019d never know it from the scene inside Bar Issi<\/a>, the new downtown restaurant from L.A.-based Boujis Group<\/a>, the visionary team behind L.A. hotspots Olivetta and Chez Mia<\/a>. We booked into the Thompson Hotel<\/a> to check out what locals had been telling us was the hottest opening in years. On a recent Thursday night it\u2019s clear word has gotten out about the California-Mediterranean spot at the new Thompson Hotel and shops on North Palm Canyon Drive: The dining room is packed with locals in their best party attire, guests sip cocktails two deep at the horseshoe-shaped bar, and diners brave the heat at the outside tables under misters on the patio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Seating
Maximalism abounds at Bar Issi.<\/figcaption>

Jakob Layman<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even though temperatures can hit 110 Fahrenheit, there\u2019s an intelligent art to making the most of summer season<\/a> in Palm Springs: Room rates dip to their lowest prices, crowds thin, and if you pick the right resort, time your pool sessions right, and book in to the best restaurants that are open for the season, you can have a lower-cost, high-impact, getaway. And the combination of Bar Issi and the Thompson make for an indulgent double dip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pink
Pink chandeliers light up the space.<\/figcaption>

Jakob Layman<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Designed by Fettle<\/a>, Bar Issi is a maximalist stunner: with high ceilings (gold mohair-lined and radiating like an indoor sun above the room no less); whimsical wallpaper of cavorting alligators, chic banquettes, colorfully-upholstered bar stools and dining chairs in jewel tones; and tall windows letting the place glow inward by day and outward by night. The room has a high-energy theatrical air that makes the place feel like a mashup between the best brasseries of Paris and the restaurant at a grand Italian coastal hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Food
The spread is Mediterranean meets Californian.<\/figcaption>

Catherine Dzilenski\/@cathdiz<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The food on the wide-ranging menu channels the convergence of coast, country, and California: burrata and sun gold tomatoes, marinated lamb chops, blistered pizzas, branzino, goug\u00e8res, pastas, caviar service\u2014a greatest hits of the European good life. Weekend brunch is equally indulgent: ricotta toast is topped with crab; and the fresh cheese is also folded into fluffy pancakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cocktails
Enjoy some refreshing cocktails to take a break from the summer heat.<\/figcaption>

Catherine Dzilenski\/@cathdiz<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bar Issi adds to the many appeals of the Thompson, which has quickly established itself as one of Palm Springs' most desirable modernist resorts. The sleek, whitewashed art-filled modernist campus is elegantly landscaped with desert plants and boasts enough indoor and outdoor spaces, pools, and dining options to make for an immersive weekend one-stop getaway: The rooms boast patios, some with mountain views; the sizable rooftop pool has its own bar; the Levantine-influenced restaurant Lola Rose<\/a> is all chic earth tones; and the lobby opens up to the outside and offers numerous cushy lounging areas with a DJ booth that\u2019s both a design piece and host to resident turntablists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dinner
Dishes at Bar Issi.<\/figcaption>

Catherine Dzilenski\/@cathdiz<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our strategy for hacking Palm Springs at the Thompson in the summer is: Run or hike first thing in the morning, hit the pool in the balmy, not-too-hot morning, break for lunch at Lola Rose, nap, hit the pool again when the evening breeze kicks up, indulge in aperitivo hour and a Mediterranean feast at Bar Issi\u2026 and repeat.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Bar Issi Is Palm Springs' Hottest New Restaurant Opening","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"bar-issi-palm-springs","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-06-23 13:12:36","post_modified_gmt":"2025-06-23 20:12:36","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sunset.com\/?p=189877","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"stories_row_1_bottom":[{"ID":185851,"post_author":"16","post_date":"2025-05-08 03:00:00","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-08 10:00:00","post_content":"\n

Even though it rarely rains in Los Angeles, it\u2019s a bold move to open a restaurant with 70 percent of its tables outside. But if restaurateur Marissa Hermer is anything, it\u2019s bold. The former hospitality publicist, Bravo Ladies of London<\/em> star, and successful restaurateur whisks us through her newest creation, Chez Mia<\/a>, designed by Tom Parker of trans-Atlantic design firm Fettle<\/a>. It's a Provence-inspired indoor-outdoor fantasia that channels all that\u2019s to love about refined coastal dining in the Mediterranean in summer: Clusters of tables dot a sprawling patio of vivid tile, plush banquettes, lush plantings, a bubbling fountain, an array of tufted umbrellas to break up the sun by day and help contain the glow of candles and murmur of diners by night, and in the center of it all, a grand marble-topped bar that invites guests to linger over glasses of ros\u00e9 and cocktails. She points out the art that\u2019s everywhere you look, taking inspiration from Matisse\u2019s paintings and stained glass and the Calder sculpture at hotel La Colombe d\u2019Or in Southeastern France. There\u2019s an abstracted nude in the style of Matisse, and Marissa is happy to point out that she was the model. Marissa has frequently visited the south of France, as has investor Kurt Seidensticker. The Mediterranean summer playground\u2019s influence is everywhere\u2014even the bathroom is an homage to the yellow-and-white striped chaises longues of the Hotel Il Pellicano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Marissa
Marissa Hermer at Chez Mia <\/figcaption>

Thomas J. Story<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant history buffs will know Chez Mia sits on a storied stretch of Los Angeles<\/a>: It\u2019s on the northern portion of West Hollywood\u2019s <\/a>restaurant row on La Cienega, which stretches up from Beverly Hills, anchored by Matsuhisa to the south up to this location that formerly housed Hollywood power-player hangout Ago. In scale and vibe, it ranks up there with L.A.\u2019s most impressive outdoor dining spots: the patios at the Polo Lounge and Spago. The menu is a something-for-everyone range of L.A.-Mediterranean classics: Branzino is simply grilled<\/a>, delicious without a sauce, thanks to perfect sourcing and technique. A green salad<\/a> is just that: piled high with delicate lettuces and dressed just so. You can have steak frites, and it will be Wagyu<\/a>. Carpaccio<\/a> is ennobled with discs of truffle. And the cocktails range from textbook classics<\/a> to creative originals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chez

Thomas J. Story<\/p><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Chez Mia is more than a gorgeous place to linger over ros\u00e9\u2014it\u2019s also, in a way, a relief center<\/a> in disguise, which even in the best of times is what hospitality is all about. Restaurants are by definition places where strangers are welcome for respite and sustenance. When the devastating L.A. fires swept through neighborhoods, forcing families to evacuate and displacing entire communities<\/a>, Marissa reignited a program she\u2019d first started during the pandemic called \u201cYou Give. We Cook. They Eat<\/a>,\u201d transforming her restaurants into lifelines. Within days, she mobilized staff, volunteers, and a network of donors to deliver thousands of nourishing meals\u2014not just to first responders but also to families who had lost everything, and even to a goat named Coco who became a kind of four-legged symbol of survival. \u201cWe\u2019re here to make people happy,\u201d Marissa says. \u201cBut in times like these, that mission goes deeper\u2014it\u2019s about comfort, dignity, hope.\u201d That\u2019s what Chez Mia offers now: not just elegance and escapism, but a gathering place to feel human again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try Chez Mia Recipes Chez Vous<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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