If you're a fan of grabbing dinner outside on El Paseo, here's some welcome news—you can keep those patio reservations.
Earlier this week, it looked like Little Bar and Kitchen 86 were about to lose their popular outdoor dining decks, even after Palm Desert extended its temporary dining deck program. Restaurant owners believed they had run out of options and were preparing to pull the plug on the outdoor spaces that have become a favorite with locals and visitors alike.
But sometimes the biggest obstacle isn't city policy—it's paperwork.
The issue wasn't that Palm Desert wanted the decks to disappear. The city requires any restaurant with a dining deck built in the public right-of-way to have written authorization from the property owner. Until those signatures were in place, the restaurants couldn't move forward.
The good news? They got the paperwork done.
With the property owners signing off, both Little Bar and Kitchen 86 received the green light to keep serving customers outside. That means those outdoor tables, which first became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, will stay open through June 2027 while the city works on a permanent plan for outdoor dining throughout Palm Desert.
It's a win for the restaurants, their employees, and the customers who've embraced patio dining as part of the El Paseo experience. Outdoor seating has become more than a pandemic solution—it's become part of the atmosphere that makes dining in Palm Desert special.
This also shows that sometimes government isn't saying "no"—it's saying, "We just need the right signatures." Once everyone got on the same page, the solution came together pretty quickly.
So if you were worried those sidewalk tables were headed for storage, you can relax. The umbrellas are staying up, the chairs aren't going anywhere, and your favorite outdoor meal is still on the menu. Sometimes the secret ingredient isn't what's coming out of the kitchen—it's getting the paperwork across the finish line.
By: NBC Palm Springs
June 26, 2026
