Tony's Burgers opening spiffed-up sister spot in the old Pete's Hideaway in Palm Springs
The man behind Tony’s Burgers in Cathedral City is opening a new Palm Springs restaurant that will pair familiar Tony’s burger favorites like the Rainbow Burger and La Vida Loca with steaks, pastas and other new offerings.
The new restaurant, which will be called Tony’s Grill and Bar, will take over the space at 665 South Palm Canyon Drive in south Palm Springs. That spot was home to the bar, restaurant and music venue Pete’s Hideaway, which operated for about a decade before closing last summer. Before that, it also housed another restaurant, Roscoe Grill.
Jose Cuevas is the son of Tony’s Burgers owner Antonio Cuevas and helps manage the existing restaurant and handle its communications. He said the new restaurant will serve most of the same menu items as the Cathedral City burger spot, but with the additions of steaks, pastas and other dinnertime fare. They are also exploring offering brunch but have not made any final decisions, Jose Cuevas said.
Cuevas added that diners will also notice Tony’s Grill and Bar will feature fulltime bartenders who will mix up wider and more elevated bar offerings than what are served up in Cathedral City, although the plan is to eventually expand the bar offerings at the original Tony's location as well.
“We’ve got some specialty cocktails we are going to be doing there. We’ve got the classic cocktails,”Cuevas said. “Anything you can name, we’ll most likely have it at this Palm Springs location.”
While diners will recognize much of the menu offerings from Tony’s Burgers, they might hardly recognize the interior, which Cuevas said is basically being gutted and remade from the ground up.
He explained the restaurant will feature a new bar while the music stage area has been replaced with more seating. However, a second smaller bar area in the back will remain, with the plan to use it for private events such as drag shows.
Ultimately, the goal is to offer an atmosphere that is similar to but slightly nicer than what can be found at Tony’s Burgers.
“We’re not looking to have a loud bar atmosphere,” he said, noting there will be a few TVs turned to sports but without the volume on, just as is the case in Cathedral City.
The new Tony’s Grill and Bar will be about seven miles from Tony’s Burgers, which is in the strip mall at the intersection of Date Palm and Gerald Ford drives and opened nine years ago. Cuevas explained that his father loves Palm Springs and has long wanted a restaurant in the city, where many of his existing customers live.
The new restaurant’s name, meanwhile, will be a nod to both its expanded offerings and ownership’s approach to the business.
“A lot of places put ‘bar and grill,’ but we are doing ‘grill and bar’ because our food comes first,” Jose Cuevas said.
Cuevas said he and his father are hopeful the restaurant will open in the next 1½ to two months, but that the exact date will ultimately depend when it gets approval to open from the city.
Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and email him at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Former Palm Springs bar to become Tony's Burgers' sister restaurant
