Palm Springs goes out small and early-ish: tiki bars, one supper club and the short gay bar strip on Arenas Road, with the whole thing thinning out in the July and August heat.
Toucans Tiki Lounge
2100 Palm Canyon Drive, open daily 4pm–2am with Saturday brunch noon–3pm. A gay bar and cabaret with drag and DJ nights through the week, including Sunday Funday with the Stars of the Desert; reservations are encouraged for the ticketed stage shows.
Bootlegger Tiki
1101 N Palm Canyon Dr, behind Ernest Coffee in the old Don the Beachcomber space, with the original 1953 tiki torches still on the wall. Sunday, Monday and Thursday 5pm–midnight, Friday and Saturday 3pm–1am; closed Tuesday and Wednesday in summer. Small room, house-made juices and syrups, no dance floor.
The Purple Room
Supper club at the Club Trinidad resort doing Rat Pack-era material and cabaret. Entertainment Tuesday to Thursday 6:30–9:30pm; Friday and Saturday dinner 6pm and show 8pm, Sunday dinner 5pm and show 7pm. Michael Holmes' The Judy Show is the weekend fixture, and Thursday is a three-course dinner with live jazz at $59 a head.
Chill Bar
217 E Arenas Rd, on the short gay bar strip a block off Palm Canyon. A themed night every day — Latin night Thursday, LIQUID Friday, Haus of Chill Saturday, Sunday Funday — with happy hour until 7pm Tuesday to Saturday and from 2:30pm on Sundays.
Melvyn's and the Casablanca Lounge
The restaurant and lounge inside the Ingleside Estate hotel at 200 W Ramon Rd, open since 1975 and the town's dress-up option: piano, dancing and a Spanish Revival room full of Sinatra-era stories. The hotel itself is adults-only.