Calicaro Wine

09/05/2026

Palm Springs has always had a soft spot for celebrities.

And, apparently, celebrities have always had a soft spot for doing things here that would have gotten the rest of us arrested.

Harpo Marx liked to golf naked.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner once shot up Indio.

And somehow, these are both true.

Welcome to Field Notes. This week’s question: Just how much trouble can a celebrity get into in Palm Springs?

Turns out, quite a lot.

👉 Read the latest Field Notes from Palm Springs.

What is the most outrageous thing a celebrity ever did in this desert sandbox we call Palm Springs? This is not an easy question. There is Olympic-level competition for this particular gold medal. We can start with Harpo Marx.

09/02/2026

There is something slightly unhinged about ordering a tropical drink with a paper umbrella in a place that gets fewer than five inches of rain a year.

Palm Springs has never been bothered by this contradiction.

For nearly 75 years, we’ve been cultivating one of America’s more improbable fantasies: a Polynesian island dropped into the middle of the desert.

Bamboo. Blowfish lamps. Rum drinks with names that sound like warnings. Flaming torches beside mid-century glass and steel.

It shouldn’t work.

It does.

And the story goes back to Donn Beach, Hollywood, Frank Sinatra, postwar America—and a legendary Don the Beachcomber that once stood right here on North Palm Canyon Drive.

Today, those Tiki torches are burning again.

So how did Tiki get to Palm Springs? Why did it disappear? And why does it make such perfect sense here?

Palm Springs Tiki: Why the Desert Needed an Ocean

Read the new post on Devour the Desert.

There is something slightly unhinged about ordering a tropical drink garnished with a paper umbrella while standing in a place that receives fewer than five inches of rain a year. Palm Springs has never been particularly bothered by this contradiction. For roughly three-quarters of a century, thi

08/29/2026

The question I get most often at the end of a Palm Springs food tour isn’t “Where should we eat?”

It’s:

“So… where do you go?”

Fair question.

So I’m giving you a peek at my current list—from a French farmhouse in La Plaza to burgers, Middle Eastern food, Southern Italian coastal vibes and a few dishes I find myself thinking about at inconvenient times.

These aren’t necessarily the best restaurants in Palm Springs.

They’re the places I’d suggest if you called and said:

“I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”

My answers are subject to change. Fortunately, Palm Springs gives me plenty of reasons to keep researching. 😉

Read the latest Field Notes from Devour the Desert.

Welcome to Field Notes, our grab bag of questions and answers for all things Palm Springs. Today we’re going to focus on a single question, the one I get asked the most when guiding tours. This question usually arrives somewhere near the end of a tour. Not, "What's the best restaurant in Pal

08/26/2026

Palm Springs has many languages. Visitors easily pick up on the fluent dialects of poolside cocktails and golden-hour dining, but the city's most fascinating conversation is one that never utters a word.It is the secret language of Mid-Century Modern architecture.Those iconic butterfly roofs and houses with massive walls of glass weren't just designed to look effortlessly cool—they were actually built to negotiate with the desert. From front doors that practice the art of mystery to windows that invite the mountains right into the living room, every design choice has a story to tell.Ready to learn how to read the visual vocabulary of the desert? Head over to the blog to discover why Palm Springs looks less like yesterday and more like tomorrow, and how to spot the details most visitors miss. https://www.artisanfoodtours.com/blog/our-local-architecture-the-secret-language-of-mid-century-modern-palm-springs

08/23/2026

Welcome to the latest edition of Field Notes From Palm Springs, our continuing series of weird and wonderful questions inspired by the things our tour guests ask.
This week, we tackle epic desert wildlife battles and the possibility of actually living here.
The battle:
We grew up believing the Roadrunner was a fast little bird with excellent comic timing.
It turns out we may have underestimated him.
Welcome to the Thunderdome.
Here in the desert, roadrunners hunt rattlesnakes. They have a strategy, they sometimes work in pairs, and their preferred method of dispatch involves repeatedly slamming the snake against the ground.
Which raises obvious questions:
What the hell else is going on out there?
And how DO we live here?
Let's dive in, before something decides WE might be lunch.

Live at the Thunderdome: Coyote vs. Roadrunner. Roadrunner vs. Rattlesnake. We’ve already established in Field Notes, Vol. 4 that coyotes occasionally hunt roadrunners. Which means that, somewhere out there in the Coachella Valley, the real-life version of the Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon

08/23/2026

Some places have FAQs.
Palm Springs has its own slightly mysterious questions.
Why are roadrunners wandering around like they own the place? Should you actually worry about rattlesnakes? Is everyone retired—or just exceptionally good at looking retired? And why do the mountains seem to change color every time you look up?
These aren't the questions you'll find in a guidebook.
They're the questions you start asking once you've been here long enough to realize the desert has its own rules.
Welcome to Local Questions—field notes from Palm Springs, where some answers explain everything… and others only deepen the mystery.
Read the latest from Devour the Desert.

Every Place Has Its Frequently Asked Questions In New York, it's, "How do people afford to live here?" In Seattle, it's, "Does it ever stop raining?" In Palm Springs, the questions get... weirder. Why is a giant roadrunner strutting through a parking lot like he owns the plac

08/15/2026

Our latest installment in The Local Flavors series takes us to Maleza, where Chef Ysaac Ramirez has done something rather interesting with a familiar Southern California favorite.

It looks like a taco.

It smells like a taco.

It even arrives on a tortilla.

And yet, somewhere along the way, things take an unexpected turn.

Let's just say that by the end, we learned something about tacos, abundance, and knowing when to surrender.

Read the latest from Devour the Desert.

https://www.artisanfoodtours.com/blog/the-fish-tacos-that-surrendered-to-gravity

Come hungry. Leave like a local.

There comes a moment with some dishes when you realize the original plan is no longer viable. You intended to pick it up. The chef had other ideas. The al pastor fish tacos at Maleza arrive looking, technically, like tacos. There is a handmade flour tortilla involved. There is fish. There ar

08/12/2026

After enough tours, you start to notice something about Palm Springs visitors:

They don't just ask where to eat.

They ask questions. Lots of questions.

Why is everything orange? Why are there hummingbirds everywhere? How do locals survive the summer? And should I actually be nervous about riding that enormous rotating tram up a mountain?

There are usually more interesting answers than you'd expect.

Today we're serving up four questions, a little science, some local lore, and a few things about Palm Springs that aren't immediately obvious.

Because every place has its mysteries. Ours just happen to involve hummingbirds, 110-degree heat, orange doors, and a tram that spins while climbing 5,800 feet.

Read The Local Questions, Vol. 3 | Field Notes from Palm Springs.
https://www.artisanfoodtours.com/blog/the-local-questions-field-notes-vol-3
Come curious. Leave with more questions.

After enough tours, you realize Palm Springs visitors don't just ask where to eat. They ask the questions that seem simple—right up until you try answering them. So what's up with all the orange? Why are there hummingbirds everywhere? Should I be worried about the tram? Every place develops its

08/08/2026

The longer you stay in Palm Springs, the stranger your questions become.
At first, they're perfectly reasonable: Where should we eat? What’s that building? Why is everyone so relaxed?
Then something happens.
You start wondering why hummingbirds seem personally offended by you. Whether dates are actually good for you. What, exactly, is a haboob. And how anyone can possibly call 101 degrees "not that bad."
Our latest Field Notes from the desert tackles five questions that tend to emerge somewhere between your second cold brew and your fourth hummingbird sighting.
Some answers are practical. Some are surprising. A few involve an alarming amount of dust.
Read the latest from Devour the Desert here:
The longer you stay in Palm Springs, the stranger your questions become.
At first, they're perfectly reasonable: Where should we eat? What’s that building? Why is everyone so relaxed?
Then something happens.
You start wondering why hummingbirds seem personally offended by you. Whether dates are actually good for you. What, exactly, is a haboob. And how anyone can possibly call 101 degrees "not that bad."
Our latest Field Notes from the desert tackles five questions that tend to emerge somewhere between your second cold brew and your fourth hummingbird sighting.
Some answers are practical. Some are surprising. A few involve an alarming amount of dust.
Read the latest from Devour the Desert here:
https://www.artisanfoodtours.com/.../lr8jfemf3opdozjgp4za...
Come for the answers. Stay for the haboob.
Come for the answers. Stay for the haboob.

08/04/2026

Why are there so many windmills? Is Palm Springs really as pink as it seems? Do celebrities still actually live here? And can you really fry an egg on the sidewalk?

After enough tours, you realize visitors keep asking the same wonderfully unexpected questions.

Our new Field Notes series explores the answers—with a little history, a little science, a little food, and the occasional dry observation about life in the desert.

Welcome to The Local Questions | Field Notes Vol. 1.

Read the full article here:

If you spend even a little time here, you start to notice something strange. Not the obvious stuff—sunshine, palm trees, mountains that look like a painted backdrop—but the quieter questions that keep popping up when you’re standing in line for coffee or driving down Palm Canyon wondering why ...