Mr. Lyons, an old Palm Springs steakhouse that was thankfully brought back to life

Opened in 1945, as Lyon’s English Grille, and was a Palm Springs icon, run many years by the Lyon brothers with red vinyl banquettes and gold decor. My husband Mike remembers coming here as a little boy with his Mom.

It is now owned and operated by Foundation 10 Creative, the same owner of the popular Cheeky’s and Birba restaurants and Alcazar Hotel. The decor is more sedate now – the red vinyl booths are now celadon green velvet booths, but the low lighting and rest of decor still gives the vibe of an old school steakhouse.

It was my first time dining here, but won’t be my last.

My husband and I preempted our dinner with a cocktail in the Speak Easy bar, Seymour’s, located in Mr. Lyon’s. Apparently they occupy a space that was once a private dining room that didn’t get much use. And what a great use of the space now! The physical bar is a beautiful antique black and white mosaic marble top in a wooden frame, and above it hang light fixtures from the original restaurant painted black. As befitting a speak easy, the bar is kept dimly lit, separated from the restaurant by a thick velvet curtain, but if it’s too dark for you, there’s a door that leads to the back patio, where you can play corn hole or bocci ball as you sip your cocktail.

The bar is lined with various herbs, bitters, syrups and a basket of fruits and vegetables for concocting cocktails. We were entertained by the two bartenders, Felix and Zane. A big star for me is that they carried Appleton rum, made by J. Wray & Nephew, a company my Dad was the General Manager of for many years.  They poured Mike a mean Dark and Stormy, with a ginger beer that had a bold ginger flavor and wasn’t too sweet. I wanted a cocktail without sugar, so Felix muddled and stirred my requested ingredients of mint, lemon juice, vodka and soda into a tasty, refreshing libation.  Great fun!

Dinner was delicious, but word of advice for you – split your selections, like Mike and I did, as the portions are huge!  We chose to start with a caesar salad which came with little pickled anchovies, it was a more acidic than creamy dressing which was probably good, as the rest of the meal was pretty rich.  We followed that with the dry aged Kansas City Strip bone-in with the Point Reyes Blue Cheese Fondue that was cooked on top (next time I would ask for this sauce on the side as we had to scrape some off; as delicious as it was, it was on a little too thick in some spots), Asparagus Three Ways (roasted, bavarois, shaved raw) and Mike had a Salt Baked Potato.  The steak was flavorful and very tender and the vegetables were perfectly prepared.

An added bonus is that our server had been working there since the original owners, so had wonderful stories of its history to share.  When in Palm Springs and you have a hankering for a good steak and or a fun drink in a cool Speak Easy style bar, check out Mr. Lyon’s and Seymours.