Friday, March 29, 2013

Where to Eat for Palm Springs Restaurant Week: Catalan (Rancho Mirage, CA)

Catalan in Rancho Mirage opened in 2012 by father and son Mark and Drew Davis. Drew had worked in New York and moved to Los Angeles to be a private chef to Steven Spielberg before finally deciding to open a restaurant in the Palm Springs area. Catalan is a Mediterranean restaurant, emphasizing on Italian and Spanish influences.

For Palm Springs Restaurant Week, Catalan is offering a $38 menu that has not been determined and will probably change between the 2 weeks of May 31-June 16, in line with their policy to use local, seasonal products. We tried a lot of great dishes during our media visit, though, and you can probably expect the same for the prix fixe menu.

The entire table loved the Chicken liver flatbread, caramelized onions, roasted pears, smoked mozzarella ($17)

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I mean, you eat chicken liver with bread anyway right? So why not put it on top and bake it together, add on some roasted pears and caramelized onions as "condiments"? So good.

More chicken liver? Why not! Especially when they're fried, like these Buttermilk crispy chicken livers, manchego polenta, wild mushroom port reduction, herbs ($15)
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I wondered if the typical Palm Springs audience is adventurous enough for chicken liver but either way I'm glad the chef isn't shying away from it.


If chicken liver isn't your thing, go with the Clam flatbread, chopped clams, roasted garlic, oregano, pancetta, piquillo peppers, manchego cheese ($17)
Clam Flatbread

Their regular menus are split into dinner menu and tapas menu. From the tapas menu you can get snacks for the table like the Goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers
Piquillo Peppers

We had some off-menu items also which may very well make it on the menu as the seasons change.
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Estrella Damm Inedit
There's a small cocktail menu and a larger wine list, but what really caught my eye was this one beer, Estrella Damm Inedit ($15, 750ml). Don't confuse this with the smaller Estrella Damm bottle, the Inedit is the one created by Ferran Adria and his El Bulli team back in 2009. A beer created by chefs is sure to be a great food beer.



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Catalan
70026 hwy 111
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
(760) 770-9508
http://www.catalanrestaurant.com/
Catalan on Urbanspoon

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