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The Best Restaurants & Bars In Joshua Tree

17 great restaurants, saloons, and wine shops in and around Joshua Tree.
The Best Restaurants & Bars In Joshua Tree image

photo credit: Marina Chavez

There’s no place quite like Joshua Tree. A land of mysterious energy vortexes, sound baths, and a national park that fell out of Dr. Seuss’s imagination, this remote high desert has been home to hippies, artists, and friendly neighborhood mystics for decades. And thanks to every annoying lifestyle blogger’s Instagram, Joshua Tree has also quickly become one of the more popular weekend vacation spots in SoCal. So where to eat? While the town of Joshua Tree isn’t exactly known for its abundance of restaurants, there are more great options in the surrounding area than you might think.

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Nate Abbott

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Joshua Tree

$$$$Perfect For:Getting Out Of TownLunch
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Even by Joshua Tree standards, La Copine is in the middle of nowhere. That said, this daytime cafe (open 11am-4pm) serves the best food in the High Desert and is worth the extra drive to Flamingo Heights. The fantastic, always-rotating menu is on the smaller side, but with options like shrimp rolls, steak sandos, and duck confit, it covers a lot of ground and is more upscale than most places you'll find around Joshua Tree. The bright, open space is the ideal hangout spot after you’ve immersed yourself in The Integratron sound bath nearby.

For most people visiting Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley is the chain-ridden town where you can pick up groceries and get gas before heading to your vacation rental. But there’s a lot more here than a Stater Bros. Case in point, The Copper Room. This historic restaurant at the Yucca Valley Airport has been around since the 1950s, when regulars included Frank Sinatra and Gene Autry. It closed a few years back, but has now been restored with multiple dining rooms and a wrap-around bar perfect for martinis, eating delicious snacks like garlic shrimp toast, and pretending you’re someone else for a few hours. This is the kind of place you come to on your first night in the desert, then return to every night after. 

No trip out to Joshua Tree is complete without a night at Pappy And Harriet’s. The iconic restaurant/saloon/outdoor music venue has history dating back to the 1940s when the original building (and the surrounding Pioneertown) was designed to be an 1800s frontier set for Hollywood movies. Needless to say, we wish these walls could talk. If you aren’t stumbling out after a long night of drinking, eating BBQ, and dancing uncontrollably to a honky tonk band you’ve never heard of before, you’ve done Pappy and Harriet’s terribly wrong.

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If there’s one thing the High Desert excels at, it’s impressive restaurant patios. And the best of the bunch is at Kitchen In The Desert. The massive, outdoor space, located on a residential side street in Twentynine Palms, has fire pits, a stage for live music, and an incalculable amount of string lights. The most impressive feature here, though, is the food. The menu is a unique blend of American and Trinidadian cuisine like Caribbean gumbo, pepper shrimp with toasted arugula, and doubles, a fried flatbread stuffed with chickpea curry. If you only have time for one nice, sit-down meal in Joshua Tree, make it this place. 

Tiny Pony isn’t a gay bar in the traditional sense, but this roadside tavern in Yucca Valley has become the main gathering spot for the High Desert’s growing queer community. It’s also a great place to eat delicious bar food, play some billiards, and get a little weird on a weekday. The grungy, strip mall spot is open until 2am daily (a rarity around these parts) with a solid burger, loaded yuca fries, and what might be the best cocktail in Joshua Tree: The Pickletini. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like, and yes, it’s your new personality. 

Pappy & Harriett’s monopoly on nightlife in Pioneertown is over, thanks to the arrival of Red Dog. The western-style saloon was built in the 1940s as part of a movie set, but now is a fully-functioning bar complete with an excellent craft beer list, live music, and a delicious Tex-Mex food menu of tacos, street corn, and the best queso we’ve had in a while. It’s also an easy five-minute walk from Pappy’s, which makes planning your night out simple: You’re going to both. 

If you have dreams of being the house bartender at the Airbnb all weekend, stop at Desierto Alto on your way in. This wine and spirits shop in Yucca Valley has the largest selection of natural wine in the High Desert, plus tons of fancy liquor, specialty cheeses, and other supplies like cocktail shakers, wine openers, and even frozen La Morra pizza. And don’t worry if you forget to stop—they can deliver anything you need to your door. 

photo credit: Joshua Tree Saloon

$$$$Perfect For:Getting Out Of Town

As fantastic as Pappy and Harriet’s is, it’s also a 40-minute drive from the town of Joshua Tree, and tonight you’re in the mood to keep it local. Head to Joshua Tree Saloon. As the name suggests, this restaurant/bar has a kitschy Old West aesthetic, and after three beers and a whiskey shot, you’re completely fine with it. The menu is full of burgers, sandwiches, and big plates of meat, and while nothing will blow you away, it’s what you need after a long day of taking photos of big rocks.

We’re all for a cream-filled Long John before a day of galavanting on boulders, but donuts are not why you come to this tiny shop in Twentynine Palms. You’re at Jelly Donut for the not-so-secret Vietnamese menu stapled on the wall. And we say not-so-secret because every person inside this former gas station is eating pho. There are seven varieties available, including chicken, shrimp, and veggie, but we go for the traditional #1 with steak, brisket, and beef balls. You might spot another Jelly Donut branch on the drive through Yucca Valley, but don’t be duped—that one serves zero bowls of delicious pho. 


This tiny, all-day eatery opened in late 2020 and gave the downtown area another excellent post-hike refuel option. The small counter-service space is takeaway only at the moment, but there’s a large daily-changing menu that’s sure to appease every dietary restriction in your group. We recommend going for either a fresh-made sandwich (the vegan chickpea wrap is particularly good) or one you pull something from their grab-and-go refrigerator to enjoy on the hammock back at your rental.

Picture a dive bar located on the furthest reaches of the High Desert. Chances are you’re imagining something close to Out There Bar. The windowless, 70s-era space in Twentynine Palms has a shuffleboard, Bud on draft, and, of course, a crusty old dude in the corner cussing at the TV. Dig a little deeper though and you’ll find some surprising stuff. Namely, sporadic drag queen bingo nights, Neapolitan pizza pop-ups, and sets from great LA indie bands on weekends. It’s the kind of place where you never know what you’ll see or who you’ll talk to—just that it won’t be boring.


photo credit: Pie For The People

$$$$Perfect For:Getting Out Of Town

It’s been a long day at the park and the last thing you want to do is stand in the kitchen for two hours to make dinner for everybody. Give the cutting board the night off and order takeout from Pie For The People. It’s easy to be skeptical of a NYC-style pizza place in the middle of the California desert, but after one pie your instincts will be proven wrong. The pizza is solid, and the menu is big enough to ensure everyone will be happy. The meat-heavy Hwy 62 Revisited is our favorite.

You can find bags of Joshua Tree Coffee’s beans in markets all over Southern California these days, but a visit to the original location for early morning caffeine is an essential desert experience. Not only is the locally roasted coffee excellent, but its slightly hidden location (down the alley in between two other businesses) is the perfect place to sit, relax, and shake off last night’s Pappy and Harriet’s hangover. Prepare for lines and don’t leave without a nitro cold brew.

From the vast array of affordable natural wines and crystal necklaces to the festively dressed alien out front, Wine & Rock Shop in Yucca Valley is a must-visit during any trip to JT. The quirky shop is a great place to do some gift hunting for that one friend who’s always hard to shop for, as well as replenishing the weekend wine stock without having to venture to Vons. And if you think you’re leaving without an extensive photoshoot with the alien out front, you’re sadly mistaken.

You just showed up to Natural Sisters and the line is 30 people deep. Head one block over to Crossroads Cafe. The all-day diner has solid food any time of the day, but their breakfast is excellent and hearty. By mile eight of your hike, you’ll be grateful you ordered those huevos rancheros. The bar is also a solid place to down a beer or two after you’re done with the trails.

While we prefer Pie For The People when it comes to pizza night at the vacation rental, Sky High is a great midday option if you leave the park in need of sustenance. The sourdough pizza shop is located right outside the national park's main entrance in Joshua Tree, making it an easy choice if you aren’t in the mood for a half-melted protein bar. Our favorite pizza is their Diavola with spicy sausage, calabrese, and fresno chiles, but there are more out there options too like lobster langostino with truffle cream, Greek meatball, and Korean barbecue pork belly. You’re in JT, why not get weird?

Apologies to the fabulous national park, but drinking under the stars in the backyard of your rental house is the reason you come to Joshua Tree. But in the event your booze stock starts to run low, there’s no need to stress: JT Bottle Shop is here. The downtown shop specializes mainly in small-production wine under $25, but there’s also an excellent beer fridge and a small selection of craft mezcal and other spirits. Plus, they’re open until 8pm on the weekends, which in Joshua Tree, basically makes it an after-hours spot.

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