Desert Cafe and Mercantile

Coffee and a sandwich at the Riviera

A hotel café has one job, and this one does it: coffee in the morning, a sandwich or a snack in the middle of the day, and something to carry back to a lounger by the pool. Desert Cafe and Mercantile sits inside Riviera Palm Springs, and the mercantile half of the name points to the small-retail side of the idea, a place to pick something up as much as to order it. It is a practical stop rather than a destination, and it does not pretend otherwise.

Built for the middle of a desert day

Breakfast, lunch and poolside bites are the shape of the service, which makes the café most useful at the two ends of a Palm Springs afternoon: before the heat, when coffee is the reason to walk over, and during it, when a cold drink and something light beat leaving the property. The format is quick and counter-led, so it suits guests moving between the pool, the room and the rest of the resort rather than anyone settling in for a full meal.

How to use it

Treat it as an amenity rather than an outing. Coffee with a sandwich in the morning is the natural order, a snack or a poolside bite later in the day. If you want a specialty-coffee morning with named origins and brew methods, that lives elsewhere in Palm Springs. What this counter offers is convenience at the right moment, which on a hot day in the desert is worth more than a tasting note.