Celebrating 20 years of bringing a taste of Europe to downtown Palm Springs, Pomme Frite provides an intimate, romantic ambiance for special nights out. The quaint setting evokes a continental café, with its street-side patio on bustling Palm Canyon Drive and the dulcet sounds of French music playing softly in the background.

The greatest praise, owner-entrepreneur Jean-Claude Constant says, is when patrons tell him it feels like they’re in Paris or Brussels. “Because of the atmosphere, people feel they are transported to Europe for an evening,” he says. “That’s the best compliment I can get. And I get it frequently.” (Palm Springs Life readers voted Pomme Frite Best of the Best French Restaurant in 2013, 2014, 2018, and 2019.)

Popular appetizers include the oven-baked French Onion Soup with “beaucoup” Gruyère cheese, imported escargots, and baked French brie. Steak lovers can choose from several cuts, complemented by brandy-green peppercorn sauce, bearnaise, bordelaise, or blue cheese cream. The signature Flemish-style carbonnade of beef simmers in Belgian beer and is served with pommes frites.

Prefer the catch of the day? Opt for salmon, rainbow trout, filet of sole, grilled tiger shrimp and sea scallops, or the California bouillabaisse. Steamed Mediterranean black mussels — a house special — are prepared 12 different ways.

Pomme Frite is open seven nights a week from 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. From January until May, it’s open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.