Crossroads Cafe

29 Palms Highway, Palm Springs · Diner · $

Joshua Tree's town center runs about two blocks and Crossroads sits in the middle of it, which makes it the default meeting point for climbers heading in at dawn and for the same people coming out dusty and starving at two. The kitchen makes its own chorizo and most everything else from scratch, in a room decorated somewhere between old Western saloon and salvaged metal shop. It closes at 2:30pm, so plan it as a beginning to the day rather than an end.