Shields Date Garden

Indio, Palm Springs · Café · $$

Dates are not native to California. They were carried here from the Middle East and North Africa in the early 1900s, and the Coachella Valley turned out to be one of the few places on earth they thrive. Shields has grown and sold them since 1924, and has screened its own film, The Romance and Sex Life of the Date, in a small theater on site for decades. The date shake lands closer to chocolate than to fruit, which surprises people expecting something merely sweet.