What's New in Palm Desert This Fall: A Surf Lagoon, a Restaurant That Stayed Open, and a Weekend Calendar Worth Rewriting
August 6, 2026
August 6, 2026
For years, the shorthand for Palm Desert was simple: golf in the morning, El Paseo in the afternoon, and a long quiet stretch from Memorial Day to October when half the town went dark. Fall 2026 is the season that shorthand stops working. A surf lagoon is opening between two fairways at Desert Willow, a decade-old restaurant just broke ranks with the summer shutdown, and the First Weekend rhythm on El Paseo now has to compete with a new outdoor anchor two miles north. If you live here, your weekend map is quietly being redrawn.
The single biggest change to daily life in Palm Desert this year does not sit on El Paseo. It sits between the Firecliff and Mountain View courses at Desert Willow Golf Resort. DSRT Surf, a premier surf resort, is set to launch Phase 1 in summer 2026 with the opening of its Wavegarden surf lagoon and leisure pool, and by fall the lagoon should be running full sessions.
The scale is worth understanding before you decide whether it belongs in your routine. DSRT SURF is a 17-acre surf resort development in Palm Desert that includes a 5.5-acre 52-module Wavegarden Cove lagoon designed to produce right and left-breaking waves for up to 70 surfers at once. The Wavegarden Cove surf system is capable of producing up to 1,000 waves per hour in a variety of styles, allowing beginners and advanced surfers to ride simultaneously across multiple sections of the lagoon. The hotel, villas, and pickleball courts land in Phase 2, so what opens this summer is essentially the lagoon and a leisure pool.
The water math is the part most residents miss. The surf lagoon will be a net-zero water user through DSRT Surf's "Turf for Surf" program, which converted 30 acres of adjacent golf course turf into drought-tolerant and native landscaping. This landscape conversion is expected to save 34.8 million gallons of water annually, more than the surf lagoon's projected annual use of 23.8 million gallons, resulting in a net savings of 11 million gallons of water each year. In a valley where every new amenity gets scrutinized for its draw on the aquifer, that is a meaningful number.
"It's the kind of project that reflects who we are as a city, open to new ideas and always looking for ways to create unique experiences for the people who live here and the folks who come to visit," said Palm Desert Mayor Evan Trubee when the opening was confirmed.
The other quiet shift is the opposite of a grand opening. It's a decision not to close.
For the first time in its nearly decade-long history, The Fix on El Paseo has announced it will remain open throughout the entire summer season, expanding its menu options to entice local diners and support the community. The reasoning is more human than strategic. The unprecedented move is born out of a deep commitment to the restaurant's workforce. Operating a business in the desert during the off-season presents significant financial challenges, but owner James stated that his primary goal is to provide steady income and job security for his core employees during the year's slowest months.
If you have lived here more than a season or two, you know the pattern this breaks. Local patrons have expressed immense gratitude for the decision, noting that finding high-quality year-round dining options on El Paseo can be difficult once the summer heat takes hold. One restaurant staying open does not rewrite a street. But it does give a signal to the rest of the block, and it gives a resident a reason to walk El Paseo in August that wasn't there in 2024.
Pair that with Kitchen 86, which now runs seven days a week with a newly remodeled patio where views of the mountains and El Paseo make it a good place to relax while sipping almost-bottomless mimosas, and the middle of El Paseo is functionally a different food scene than it was two summers ago.
The First Weekend program is the closest thing Palm Desert has to a recurring civic ritual, and the calendar is worth memorizing rather than looking up each month. Here is the shape of it in one place.
| Event | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| El Paseo Cruise Night | First Friday, cars arrive 2 p.m., cruise at 4:15 p.m. | Palm Desert Area Chamber parking lot, 72559 Hwy 111 |
| El Paseo Art Walk | First Friday evening | Galleries along El Paseo |
| Concert Series at The Gardens | Every Saturday night at 4 p.m., Jan. 17 through Mar. 7 | The Gardens on El Paseo |
| Cruise-In at The River | First Saturday monthly, October 4, 2025 through April 4, 2026, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | The River, Rancho Mirage |
Cruise Night is the one to plan around if you have never done it. You don't need to own a Classic Car to enjoy all the festivities of Cruise Night on El Paseo. Everyone is welcome. The upshot is a two-hour window where the Chamber lot fills with owners who will talk to you about their cars, followed by a slow procession down El Paseo. It is the closest thing to a small-town main street event that this stretch of the valley produces.
The Gardens concert series is the more interesting number underneath. The Gardens on El Paseo has brought together the Coachella Valley community to support local non-profits, musicians, and organizations, and through this effort they have raised over $1.5 million dollars for local charities. That is a Saturday-afternoon habit doing real work.
Beyond the recurring First Weekend rhythm, the fall stack has more scheduled anchors than any single Palm Desert household needs. Pick two or three and skip the rest.
If you keep score, that is two nights of pro-tier tennis, an NBA affiliate opening, a Division I basketball weekend, an electronic festival, a Pride milestone, and Modernism Week, all within a 40-minute drive of El Paseo, all inside about six weeks.
The temptation with a roundup like this is to call it a busy season and move on. The more honest read is that Palm Desert is quietly acquiring a second center of gravity. For thirty years, the answer to "what's happening this weekend" started at El Paseo and, sometimes, ended there. Starting this fall, a resident can plausibly answer the same question with a morning surf session at Desert Willow, an afternoon on the newly consistent restaurant patios along El Paseo, and an evening at Acrisure Arena. That triangle did not exist eighteen months ago.
The practical version of the thesis is smaller. If you live here, your fall calendar has one more good option and one fewer excuse to leave town in August. If you know someone thinking about the valley, the pitch you were making two years ago is now missing a chapter.
When you are ready to talk through what this shift means for a home you own or a neighborhood you are considering, Homes in the Desert is here. Schedule a Free Consultation and we will meet you where you are, with the local read that only comes from watching this town change block by block.
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