Welcome to winter in Palm Springs. For those looking to celebrate food and drinks normally reserved for the chilly season, sunny California champions seasonal menus with fun desert touches. Below, a few greatest hits from the Kimpton Rowan’s Executive Chef Stephen Wambach and Head Bartender Jeff Cleveland.
Sea Urchin “Tofu” at 4 Saints
5 MADE-TO-ORDER SIPS
From the intimate lobby of the Window Bar with its 2-story picture window, to the High Bar (Palm Springs’ only rooftop pool) and 4 Saints Restaurant with panoramic views, our signature cocktails have a lighter take while incorporating seasonal flavors and touches.
Step up to the bar at 4 Saints… one-of-a-kind cocktails await.
1. Pearman Problems (Window Bar)
Made with: Plantation Original Dark rum, Yellow Chartreuse, grapefruit bitters and served on the rocks with a grapefruit peel.
Bartender’s Notes: This works if you can’t find the lime juice to make a daiquiri and want to sip on an Old-Fashioned riff.
2. Kitchen Tea (4 Saints)
Made with: Cointreau, lemon, seltzer, apple, and rosemary served in a highball glass with three apple slices and a rosemary sprig.
Bartender’s Notes: Kitchen Tea is a reference to a bachelorette party in South Africa. For a pairing, Foie Gras or drink it at your next bachelorette party, you know, because it has “no sugar.”
Savory and herbaceous, the Kitchen Tea is a party pleaser.
3. Vista Chino (4 Saints)
Made with: Sparkling wine, rum, fig, lime, honey, cinnamon and vanilla poured into a flute with an orange twist.
Bartender’s Notes: While not a dessert cocktail, the richness of the fig-infused rum combined with the spices in the honey syrup make a nice, light, after-dinner sipper
4. Passion of Rickeys (High Bar)
Made with: Tanqueray No. TEN, passion fruit, lime, soda water presented in a highball glass with purple carrots.
Bartender’s Notes: The sun and the rooftop pool.
High Bar’s Passion of Rickeys cocktail is bright and fruity — perfect to combat winter
5. Flood Insurance (4 Saints)
Made with: Floodwall Apple brandy, sherry, Cocchi Americano and Suze on the rocks and garnished with a sage leaf.
Bartender’s Notes: If a teenage Negroni wanted to rebel against the family name, they might look like this drink.
5 DISHES TO START
Explore Chef Wambach’s tasty delights at 4 Saints and Juniper Table.
Soak in the California sunshine (and cuisine) at Juniper Table.
1. Baja Kampachi with Porcini, Leek, Dill, Wild Juniper, Sorrel (4 Saints)
Chef’s Notes: This could also be called “fish in the forest.” Every two weeks, wild juniper (berries with a distinctly piney note) is sourced from the high desert. After the fish is cooked in the oven, we add baby leeks, sorrel, mushrooms and a tiny amount of juniper branch into a glass dome, which helps smoke the dish.
A juniper smoke-filled dome adds flair and flavor to 4 Saints’ “fish in the forest.”
2. Foie Gras “Bread and Butter” with Autumn Flavors, Salted Caramel, Apple, Thai Long Pepper and Gingerbread. (4 Saints)
Chef’s Notes: A fun dish with apple three ways— one with white wine, another with sweet caramel and finally one with an acidic passion fruit flavor.
3. Avocado Flatbread with turmeric, hazelnut, sesame, Serrano Chile (Juniper Table)
Chef’s Notes: Everyone has an avocado toast on their menu and we reworked the idea and puffed up a flatbread in a pizza oven then added thinly sliced avocado with radishes, sesame, hazelnut, plus serrano chile for a bit of heat and toasted sunflower seeds for texture.
Juniper Table’s menu features a fresh approach to avocado toast.
4. Sea Urchin “Tofu” with Green Apple-Coriander Salad and Squid Ink-Black Sesame Crisp (4 Saints)
Chef’s Notes: This isn’t something you normally see in the desert. Fresh sea urchin is made into a custard, placed in little bowls with green apple juice and a thin layer of green apple jelly and for texture, we add toasted almonds and a salty crisp.
5. Crepe Passion Claude Troisgros (4 Saints)
Chef’s Notes: This is a comfort food dessert and a labor of love. I asked my old boss, the French chef Claude Troisgros, for permission to use this recipe from his grandmother. He moved to Brazil in the 1980’s and found that passion fruit glaze added a tropical feel.
Don’t miss the show-stopping crepe for dessert at 4 Saints.
