New seafood spot Shorebird brings taste of the ocean to Palm Desert

The name for Shorebird, Palm Desert’s latest high-end restaurant to open on El Paseo, emerged a few years ago, as Jay Bogsinske and his colleagues were preparing to open the restaurant’s original location along the bay in Newport Beach.

“We're looking at all these yachts out there and all these birds out there, and the birds were kind of hanging out all day, swooping from the sail masts, from this one over to that one,” Bogsinske, an executive chef and managing partner for the restaurant, said in an interview.

They inquired with the bay’s dockmaster, who identified them simply as “shorebirds,” rather than distinguishing the gulls from the sandpipers and whatnot. The name seemed fitting to the restaurateurs.

“We want people to come here and hang out, and we have a patio that watches over all the yachts,” Bogsinske said. “It's got a lot of outdoor dining there, and the name kind of stuck with us and rang with us for about a week. We were like, ‘Let’s take (the name) to Shorebird.’”

The Newport Beach restaurant was a hit, Bogsinske said, and the Wild Thyme Restaurant Group soon opened a new location in Sedona, Arizona, where the group had another restaurant, Molé, that expanded its Mexican cuisine to Palm Desert in late 2022.

Given the sister restaurant down the street, Palm Desert was a logical next step, and the new Shorebird location opened earlier this month.

“This is somewhere we've been driving through for years and watching the development and taking a look at the disposable income (in the area), all these kinds of things like that,” Bogsinske said. “We're always looking for something along those roads that we're traveling.”

Shorebird’s dining options partially stem from another restaurant in Las Vegas overseen by Bogsinske’s team, but with far more seafood options. The chef credits the connections they’ve made with suppliers in Newport Beach, Santa Monica and across the region for allowing them to bring fresh fish to the desert.

“I've been a chef since I was about 18. ... We've got real long-standing relationships with people, especially fish purveyors,” Bogsinske said. “Where most people out here are only getting fish a couple times a week, we're getting it six days (a week). We're leveraging our buying power and really our relationships.”

While the menu offers plenty of intriguing seafood — crab cakes, butter basted scallops and a salmon mignon with a cauliflower puree, to name a few — some of Shorebird’s most popular items are their meats cooked over an almond wood fire.

“Every protein is cooked on there, except for the seafood,” Bogsinske said. “It's an incredible flavor because it's not too smoky. Everything's golden brown, but it has that subtle smoke to it.”

He pointed to the pork chops — with whole racks roasted over the fire, then individual, two-inch cuts finished on the grill — and the rotisserie chicken, known as “The Shorebird,” as a couple of the most popular items.

“The chicken here, I mean, we run out every night,” Bogsinske said, adding he went through 70 orders of it the day before. “We serve it as either chicken with truffle butter and lemon-asparagus risotto and parmesan, or we serve them also as these build-your-own-taco platters.”

The menu also includes a unique starter dish: Tempura-battered avocado fries, served with a green goddess dressing and chives. Shorebird also offers a handful of desserts, including an affogato, a pineapple carrot cake and a key lime pie infused with yuzu and topped with a raspberry sorbet.

For drinks, Bogsinske had high praise for their frothy espresso martini: “A lot of people serve that, but by far, ours is the best.” Other drink options include a blueberry sour with bourbon and a passionfruit drop with vodka.

The new Palm Desert restaurant has a two-floor space and an outdoor patio at The Shops on El Paseo, with a special tasting room for whiskey, a sushi bar and a lounge area on the second floor.

Shorebird is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Shorebird brings taste of the ocean to Palm Desert's El Paseo