"We woke up this side of El Paseo." That's what Patrick Masur says in one of the opening videos for Rock'N Avenue, his new bar at 73-730 El Paseo, as The Desert Sun reported in its Oct. 25 restaurant roundup. A few blocks west, J's Deli has reopened with about a third as many seats as its old location. On Highway 111, a dumpling house with a year of "coming soon" signs is down to its last inspections.

All three arrived with their terms written down before the doors opened. Some came from the owners and some from Palm Desert City Hall. Those terms add up to a fairly exact picture of the street for this season. It will have more evening hours, smaller rooms, and rules on how loud the music can be and when.

The Deli That Came Back Smaller on Purpose

The original J's Deli closed in June 2025 in the historic One El Paseo building. According to The Desert Sun, owners Jay and Vanessa Rubenstein told regulars in those last days, "we'll be back." About 16 months later they kept that promise. They opened in September in the former Sweet Basil California Eatery space at 73-655 El Paseo, less than three-quarters of a mile west of the first location.

The change is in the scale. The menu is about 60% smaller and the dining room has about a third as many seats. Chicken schnitzel and braised short rib are new to the menu. The matzo ball soup and the Reubinski, pastrami and corned beef on one sandwich, both made the cut. Rubenstein told the paper the smaller format allows faster service, with everything still made to order. "The food really tastes the same as people remember," he said. The long bar and big dining room are gone. The vintage photographs, the black-and-white chairs and a smaller dessert case came along. Luis Gonzalez is the chef.

The schedule shows what kind of restaurant J's means to be now. According to its website, it opens at 9 a.m. every day. It closes at 3 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday and at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Four nights a week, El Paseo has a dinner option it didn't have last season.

The Bar That Opened Under 53 Conditions

Rock'N Avenue is open seven days a week, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., according to its website. Inside, The Desert Sun describes a sleek lounge with a VIP room and walls of flat-screens. The screens show football on weekends and music videos the rest of the week. Each night has a theme: country on Mondays, Latin on Tuesdays and classic rock on Thursdays and Fridays.

Getting to those hours took most of the spring. NBC Palm Springs reported that nearby businesses had raised concerns about late-night noise. At its March 17 meeting, the Planning Commission put the project on hold. After a six-week recess, it approved the bar 4-0 in May, as The Palm Desert Post reported. Both sides brought petitions. Masur submitted 107 online signatures of support, and a Change.org page passed 700 supporters, including all five city councilmembers. A hand-signed petition against the bar had 72 names.

The approval came with 53 conditions drawn from fire, environmental health, planning and code enforcement. Five of them shape what a shopper or neighbor experiences on the street.

1. Closing time is 2 a.m.
2. No loud bass music until 9 p.m., the hour nearby stores close.
3. The dance floor from the earlier proposal is gone.
4. Sound-deadening walls and curtains had to be tested by a licensed acoustic engineer before opening.
5. Under Condition 33, Masur reports back to the city at six, 12 and 24 months after opening.

The second condition does the most to shape the street. It splits El Paseo's evening in two, with retail hours that stay quiet and a later stretch that belongs to the bar. Commissioner Joshua Nickerson explained the reasoning at the hearing, as quoted by The Palm Desert Post: "the business owner is going to do whatever it takes to stay in business, and that's why we put these conditions in place." NBC Palm Springs had reported an August target. The bar opened this fall instead, and its first required report to the city is due about six months after opening.

The Dumpling House Held Up by Paperwork

The approvals that mattered for Rock'N Avenue were public hearings. The ones holding up One More Bite Dumpling House are inspections. The restaurant has been promised at 73547 Highway 111 in the Jensen's shopping center for about a year. In an Oct. 9 KESQ report, Luyi Deng explained the delay. She runs the company's social media, and her husband is one of the owners.

KESQ found that city records match that timeline. Deng said staff in both cities had been "wonderful" to work with. She also said the Palm Desert location could open by the end of October. In its Oct. 25 column, the Coachella Valley Independent still listed it as "should be open soon." The owners post updates at instagram.com/onemorebite888, so check there before you drive over.

The company already runs five locations, in Loma Linda, Wildomar, San Marcos, Chino and Yucaipa. Its specialty is xiao long bao, the handmade Shanghainese soup dumpling. The Palm Springs location at 105 S. Palm Canyon Drive is expected about two months after Palm Desert, so the Highway 111 store is set to serve the valley's first soup dumplings from this owner.

A Three-Decade Room Goes Quiet

Not every change this fall is an addition. City Wok closed in early September after more than 30 years in Palm Desert. Owner Stuart Davis told NBC Palm Springs he is turning his attention to his other franchises and new projects. The station also recalled that the restaurant gave free meals to frontline workers during the worst of the pandemic. City Wok's sister restaurant in the Studio City area of Los Angeles is still open, according to The Desert Sun.

This fall, a long-running, full-size dining room left Palm Desert, and the restaurant that came back to El Paseo chose fewer seats and a shorter menu.

Putting the New El Paseo on Your Calendar

Daytime El Paseo still has its familiar seasonal anchors, and the new places fit around them:

• Sundays, Nov. 1 and 8, and Dec. 6 and 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The Rare Market at The Gardens on El Paseo, 73545 El Paseo, with 40-plus local vendors, including food and produce sellers. Details from Simon. J's serves until 3 p.m. on Sundays.
• Saturday, Nov. 21: El Paseo's Light Up The Holidays celebration, with seasonal treats. It falls on a weekend night, when J's serves until 8 p.m. and Rock'N Avenue is open past midnight.
• Thursday, Nov. 26, 8 a.m.: The El Paseo Thanksgiving Day 5K, a fundraiser for Martha's Village & Kitchen's work on hunger and homelessness. Event calendar.

For a regular weeknight, the useful details are concrete. J's serves dinner Wednesday through Saturday, the bass at Rock'N Avenue stays down until the shops close at 9, and One More Bite opens once the county health inspector signs off.

Now that El Paseo stays open later, the street works a little differently for the people who live near it, and we keep up with those details. If you're thinking about how changes like these affect a home near El Paseo, OMNI Real Estate Group is glad to walk you through it. Work With Us.