Alice B., the restaurant mixing Mediterranean and American influences that celebrity Los Angeles chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken opened in Palm Springs in 2023, has closed permanently.
The closure was announced in a goodbye letter to the restaurant’s customers posted on the Alice B. website and also emailed to those on its mailing list Thursday.
“It is with great sadness that we announce Alice B. will not reopen this Fall,” began the letter, which did not explain the decision.
A call to the restaurant Thursday, Sept. 17, seeking more information was not answered. The restaurant had been closed for what had initially been described as a “summer break” since late June.
Alice B. had been added to Michelin Guide
However, the letter notes that the restaurant was honored to be included
in the 2026 Michelin Guide earlier this year, an achievement the letter calls “a reflection of the incredible support you’ve shown us, the dedication of our amazing team, and a fitting note on which to close this chapter.”
The closure comes just a few months after Gertie’s Salon & Bar, a cocktail lounge and event space, began operating inside a portion of Alice B.'s earlier this year and hosting occasional concerts. Gertie’s Salon & Bar will continue to operate there. The space is inside Living Out, a high-end apartment complex off Tahquitz Canyon Way that's aimed at LGBTQ people.
The letter also states that Alice B.’s menu of Mediterranean-inflected California cuisine will live on, with the catering side of the operation offering both Alice B.’s cuisine and that from Border Grill, the modern Mexican restaurant that helped launch Feninger and Milken to fame and currently has locations around Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The closure means diners will no longer be able to order such dishes as yellow-tail crudo, slow roasted pork shoulder and the restaurant’s cornmeal cheddar drop biscuits in Alice B.'s art-filled space. The vibe and the restaurant's name were inspired by the life and sensibility of Alice B. Toklas, the life partner of avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein (whom Gertie's is named for).
The closure also marks the end of one of the latest chapters in the decades-long partnership between Feniger and Miliken, who parlayed the success of Border Grill into a restaurant and food media empire that included the release of several co-authored cookbooks and a Food Network show called “Too Hot Tamales” that ran for nearly 400 episodes in the early 1990s.
Pair also recently closed Santa Monica restaurant
The Los Angeles Times reported that the pair closed another newer restaurant, Santa Monica’s Socalo, last January after about six years. The pair offered more details about the decision to close Socalo, with Miliken telling the paper at the time that the restaurant had been facing a range of problems, including skyrocketing prices, labor shortages and recent immigration raids, that had left it losing money for at least a year and a half.
Feniger added “We realized that the industry is changing so much, and specifically independent restaurants. The financial equation is getting tighter and tighter and harder.”
But while the pair’s roster of standalone restaurants has dwindled, they continue to operate locations of restaurants Pacha Mamas, BBQ Mexicana and the aforementioned Border Grill, with all of those locations either run out of food trucks or existing within airports, stadiums, casinos and other larger facilities. They also operate a non-profit called Feedfolks that delivers food to people in-need and told the Times they were eying opening a new standalone Border Grill somewhere in LA.
“We’re so grateful to be part of a community that values great meals and warm company as much as we do. It’s been an absolute privilege to cook for you, Palm Springs,” the letter announcing Alice B.’s closure concluded.
Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development, business and, sometimes, music festivals in the Coachella Valley. Email him at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs celebrity chef spot Alice B. closes after 3 years
