7 shops and restaurants that show why this off-the-radar desert town is a must-see beyond Coachella
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In 2021, Indio native Ejay Gomez had a dream that he was walking through a bustling town full of thriving businesses. Kids were playing, dogs were barking and all the storefronts were full.
“I thought it was like downtown Pasadena or something,” said Gomez, who had opened Indio’s first cafe, Everbloom Coffee, with his business partner, Matthew Ortega, just a few months before. “It was a communal space where people were hanging out in a ‘live, eat, work’ kind of place.”
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In the dream, Gomez asked God where he was. God told him, he said, that this was the future of what was then a largely deserted stretch of downtown Indio, just a block away from where Gomez grew up.
“He said, ‘If you steward this well, I will make this place prosperous.’” Gomez said. “It was such a real dream that it became a core conviction.”
Gomez’s vision may not have come fully to fruition just yet, but with a host of new businesses opening in the past year and several more on the way, it no longer feels so far-fetched.
“It’s like Silver Lake before it became Silver Lake,” Gomez said, sitting outside his bright coffee shop — a favorite with visiting celebrities, influencers and local moms — on a recent afternoon. “We’re just on the precipice of something great.”
Hundreds of thousands of people descend on Indio each year for Goldenvoice’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach, but few venture beyond the festival grounds. In the past, there wasn’t much to do in the desert city besides grab chips and a decadent Tamale Boat from Arriola’s Tortilleria or shop at Yellow Mart for western wear or a crossbow. Now, that’s all changing. Thanks in part to a business-friendly city government that is investing in art and infrastructure, downtown Indio is growing at an unprecedented pace.
New restaurants like Marcel Ramirez’s Gabino’s Creperie East, Roman Whittaker and Skip Paige’s popular gastropub Indio Taphouse and elevated Italian speakeasy Italica are drawing more people to and around the single-street stripthan have been there in decades. Thrifters can shop for vintage goods at Daniel Mata’s Urban Donkey, and those looking for an alternative nightlife scene can check out Adrian Romero’s Rosemary HiFi to sip beer and natural wines while listening to records on high-end stereo equipment. Visitors and locals attending free outdoor concerts and films at the city-sponsored Center Stage — a recently built outdoor theater— line up for smashburgers and loaded fries from local vendor Papa Headz, who gives out free burgers to kids on family movie nights.
And there’s more on the way. On a recent tour of the classic downtown area dotted with freshly painted murals, Indio’s Economic Development Director Miguel Ramirez-Cornejo pointed out the locations where new businesses will soon be arriving. They include an art gallery, a music studio, a beer and pizza place, an ice cream parlor that will also serve grilled cheese, a restaurant from the Michelin-starred chef behind Palm Springs’ Bar Cecil and the second location of Gomez’s Everbloom Coffee, which will serve as the company’s flagship.
“We’re just at the beginning stages,” Ramirez-Cornejo said. “We’ve got so much to do. So much to grow.”
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Gomez has been doing his part. Determined to realize the bustling downtown Indio in his dream, he seeks out local business owners, offers whatever help they may need, ensures they are connected to other businesses for support and recruits friends and entrepreneurs to the area.
“The friendships are very unique here,” he said. “We’re each other’s council. It’s a whole ecosystem and it’s very beautiful.”
Indio may still be in the early stages of its transformation, but a visit here is already well worth your time. If you’re going to be in town for the festival or you happen to live nearby, here’s a list of seven cool businesses to check out now.
Get caffeinated at Everbloom Coffee
And it’s not just Coachella’s stars that like the coffee. At least half of the festival planning team shows up at morning meetings with Everbloom Coffee cups when they’re in Indio. In 2023, Everbloom was tapped as the festival’s coffee vendor serving drinks to attendees and has been doing it ever since.
None of this is by accident. Gomez and Ortega have worked hard to create an intentional business with a focus on integrity. Their popular array of syrups including butterscotch, honey lavender, Madagascar vanilla, mocha and the off-menu honey cinnamon are made in-house, and the service is warm and friendly.
Gomez, who grew up in Indio, has also made it his mission to build a community of businesses in his hometown. He helped Indio-based smashburger stand Papa Headz and other local vendors get contracts with the Coachella festival and has hooked up other friends and entrepreneurs with his contacts in the city government.
“It’s about sharing resources,” he said. “We offer a different product, but we’re all in hospitality. I can give you advice, you can give me advice. We all have different strengths.”
Everbloom’s current location is a bit of a drive from downtown Indio, but the company is currently constructing a second cafe in the heart of the area that will offer more seating and a traditional coffee-house experience.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week
Rethink your crepe expectations at Gabino's Creperie East
The crepes here are savory, not sweet — made with olive oil, water, flour and salt rather than butter, eggs and sugar. Cheese provides a light crunch, and Ramirez serves them stuffed like sandwiches. I hoped his regular customers would help me choose from the more than a dozen options, but everyone had a different favorite. Ejay Gomez, who owns the beloved local coffee shop Everbloom, usually goes with the Chopped Cheese (Burger) — a chopped burger patty, homemade cheese sauce, lettuce, pickles, red onion and secret sauce ($16). Miguel Ramirez-Cornejo, Indio’s director of economic development, favors the chicken pesto with lettuce, cherry tomato, red onion and cheese sauce ($16).
The first time I visited, the chef-owner himself was standing behind several crepe-size griddles, so I asked his advice. He didn’t hesitate: The turkey cheddar, which comes with chimichurri sauce, lettuce and a pickle ($16).
“It’s nice and light,” he said. Now I can’t imagine ordering anything else.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
Elevate your music-listening experience at Rosemary HiFi
He originally looked for a space in Palm Springs, where his older brother co-owns Las Palmas Brewery, but he couldn’t find the right fit. A friend told him that Indio was investing in its downtown area and hooked him up with city officials there who loved his business idea and offered him a good deal on rent. When Romero saw a small storefront that had once housed an appliance store, he knew he’d found his bar.
With cool gray walls, oak cabinetry and a smattering of midcentury furniture, the early-evening energy at Rosemary is warm and mellow. Visitors can chat with the bartenders, learn more about the audio equipment and request their favorite songs. As the sky darkens, the bar gets louder and more crowded. On Fridays and Saturdays, local DJs take over the music, some of them spinning vinyl they haven’t pulled out of their crates for years.
“At first, I thought I was going to have to look really hard to find DJs,” Romero said. “But the people were here. Now I have too many.”
When I showed up at 9:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday night, the bar was full of young people, most of whom live nearby. But even the sound of friends gathering and shouting over each other couldn’t drown out the crisp quality of the music. One thing to know before you go: Rosemary doesn’t have a liquor license, so it serves only beer and natural wines. Romero says the locals are still getting the hang of that.
Hours: 4 p.m. to 11p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Indulge in a Tamale Boat at Arriola's Tortilleria
“Just the fact that I can barhop now in Indio,” he said. “I never thought that would happen.”
And yet, even before all the new growth, Arriola’s Tortilleria, which Townley’s grandfather Ray Arriola opened in 1964, was doing brisk business with locals looking for great Mexican food on the go. Townley’s great-grandparents began selling tortillas out of their home in 1927 after immigrating to Indio from Durango, Mexico. His grandfather started delivering tortillas for the family business in 1959 before opening up the tortilleria in the same spot where Townley works today.
The small, sparse takeout restaurant has an assortment of burritos and nachos, but it is especially known for its tortilla chips, corn and flour tortillas and signature tamale boat ($11.86), which includes tamales covered in cheese sauce with a generous serving of shredded beef in red chile sauce on top. The restaurant describes it as a “taste explosion in every bite,” and I’d say that’s pretty accurate.
Townley said the shop has been getting increasingly busy on Coachella weekends as attendees use Yelp to find local and authentic food near the festival grounds. But the restaurant’s busiest time is in the weeks leading up to Christmas when locals line up for holiday tamales.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Sunday.
Dress up for dinner at Italica
The vibe is over-the-top Italian speakeasy with moody lighting, tufted banquette seating, dark walls stamped with gold fleur-de-lis and a large photo of Italian model Monica Bellucci hanging over the bar. Diners enter through an unmarked silver door next to Indio Taphouse, a casual gastropub that Whittaker and Paige also own, and then walk down a dark hallway before being shown to their seats.
Executive chef Santos Edgar Perez, who grew up in nearby Mecca and did a stint cooking at the Two Bunch Palms Resort before joining the Italica team, created a menu inspired by Whittaker’s Italian family’s recipes. The decadent house-made ravioli with truffles and sage brown butter ($30) is delicious if you are looking for an indulgence. Try the penne alla vodka, which arrives with a tableside vodka flambé ($30) if you’re looking for a show. The Flower & Wood cocktail, which includes palo santo smoke wafting out of the top of the glass, is a crowd-pleaser and highly Instagrammable ($19).
A few things to know before you go: The restaurant has a dress code, so don’t show up in beachwear, gym attire, sweatpants or a backward baseball cap. You’ll also want to make a reservation. Whittaker says the 55-seat restaurant often books up a month in advance.
Hours: 4 to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday. 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., Friday and Saturday.
Find your fit at Urban Donkey
“That’s the thing about the east end of the valley,” Mata said. “We have character, we have passion and we care about our own people.”
Over the years, he’s let local punk bands use the store as a rehearsal space, and he currently hosts occasional stand-up comedy shows and a monthly market at the store where other local vintage upstarts can sell their wares.
“It’s the only market in the valley that does things for local people in the age group of 15 to 32,” Mata told me. “We focus on youth, culture and community.”
There’s plenty of cool stuff to buy at Urban Donkey — on a recent visit a rack of ’90s prom dresses caught my eye — but be forewarned that not everything is for sale. The row of retro boom boxes lining the front windows are part of Mata’s personal collection and not available for purchase. The same goes for the shelves of old camera and film equipment that he assembled as a tribute to the store’s former life as “The Desert’s Complete Camera Shop.”
Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday through Saturday. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday. Closed Monday.
Enjoy a burger with a view at Papa Headz
“They all know me as the girl with glasses,” she said, smiling. Mathew Moreno, who takes smashburgers very seriously, was manning the kitchen. He started Papa Headz as a food truck in the pandemic and moved his business here in August when Gabino’s owner Marcel Ramirez invited him to use the kitchen after the creperie closed for the day at 4 p.m. “Marcel blessed us with this place,” Moreno told me.
The food was terrific. The edges of my burger had the perfect amount of crunch, and the fries were cut to just the right amount of thickness. But it was also hard to beat the view. The sun was just beginning to set as I took my food to a white picnic table on the recently poured concrete patio. String lights glowed above my head as I gazed up at the gorgeous mural of peachy pink-and-yellow desert flowers painted by Ramirez’s sister-in-law, who works as a tattoo artist near Joshua Tree. Looking the other direction, I could see the silhouette of the mountains against the darkening sky. At that moment, there wasn’t anywhere else in the world I wanted to be.
Hours: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday and Monday. 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday. through Saturday.
