I’ll See You at Mojave Gold

If you live in Yucca Valley or any of the surrounding desert towns and find yourself longing for a refined dining experience—one with a touch of elegance, an adventurous menu, and a wine list worth exploring—where do you turn? Maybe you’re looking for a night out dancing with friends, but without the worry of braving the unpredictable Highway 62. Or perhaps you’re craving live entertainment in a venue that goes far beyond the usual BBQ joint—a place where the food is as artful and inspired as the performances. What if all of that could be found under one roof? Let me introduce you to Mojave Gold—a gem in the desert that’s redefining the high desert experience.

This exciting new High Desert destination hopes to fill multiple voids, while providing a stylish and alluring new hub for the community. The ownership/management group consists of two business savvy and artistically driven power couples: Dale and Brooklyn Fox, who are teamed up with Greg Gordon and Cooper Gillespie.

Cooper, who brings her marketing strengths to the team, briefly described the All-Star Cast who make up the Mojave Gold ownership/management group. “I’ve been a part of a lot of bar openings, but I have never seen the synergy that this team has. It’s really amazing, everyone is top of their game. From our amazing Executive Chef Beren Ekine-Huett, who was one of two people in the country picked to go study at Noma. Then there’s our Chef de Cuisine Williams Grimoldi, who is an absolute dynamo. He’s very into nutrition. Focusing not only on taste, but the nutritional value and benefits of the food on the menu. (Even caring about how the house made pickles can help balance out any potential hangover from the tantalizing drink selection) Brooklyn Fox is the amazing designer of this incredible space. Greg is very operations focused, having lots of experience managing multimillion dollar businesses. Dale is great at the financial aspects of the business and Liz Garo is our legendary booker who’s in charge of talent acquisition. It was all very organic, assembling this ‘best of the best’ All- Star Team. Greg had a perfectly timed cold call to Beren, who had just left Workshop in Palm Springs and was actually on the lookout for her next challenge.”

Dale Fox of the ownership group agreed. He shared the wonder he experienced, seeing all the pieces fall perfectly into place. “There are rare moments when you find yourself absolutely and completely in flow. Every bit of this project came together organically. The people we met, were the exact people we needed to meet. Everyone came together because there was this sense that, we’re not just building another restaurant. There was a hole here. We all felt that the community needed more places to go. We all had the same vision of what was missing. We needed a great music venue, with an elevated, but not fussy environment. An environment that you not only enjoyed but felt elevated being in. Food that’s amazing but not overpriced, with a level of quality that’s not easily achieved or found out here. This place just felt like magic coming together.”

Speaking about the expectations of the venue Cooper continued, “After gaining our summer in the desert sea legs, by fall we are looking to ramp up to 16-20 shows a month. So that’s four to five shows a week.

Something I love about Liz, is she’s not afraid to be weird or take chances. One night there might be a DJ. The next night a movie screening, followed by a Goth night. We want it to be really eclectic. One of the things that will be really cool about Mojave Gold, is what it can be for local musicians. We want this to be a community hub. Back in the day, in the music scenes I was a part of, you didn’t always know who was playing but you just went, because everyone was going to be there.

Liz can bring in national acts, but our local bands will be given the opportunity to open for them. So that’s something I’m really excited about. We want to be able to lift up all our local musicians. We have so many amazing local musicians that are national level talent, but they need a place, that’s their place, that will give them opportunities to further their careers.” (The enthusiasm emanating from her as she spoke about this, became even more understandable once she shared that she’s also part of a band where she sings and plays bass) She continued, “being an artist is a beautiful thing, and this is such a beautiful place to be an artist. Being a part of this incredible community… we’re excited for this to be a community hub for everyone but especially local musicians.” She finished by saying, “If it doesn’t happen with this team… I don’t know who else could make it happen.”

Greg Gordon of the ownership group brings decades of experience managing multi-million-dollar businesses, including LA’s famous Supper Club, a quintessential Hollywood night club that from 10pm-2am regularly sold 70-100k in liquor. He most recently was managing at Pappy’s. He spoke about what the opening of Mojave Gold means to him. “I’m mostly excited about this place for the community. Cooper and I live here and every time we want to go out and go somewhere nice, we go down the hill. When we finish the meal, I always say, ‘I wish I was home, not 45 minutes or an hour from home.’ So, bringing this here is not only going to be good for me, but for everyone up here. If some say, ‘it sounds too fancy for Yucca’ come dressed however you want. If you dress up or down come and enjoy yourself, you will be welcomed. I will say this though, I am already excited for New Years Eve. This will be a black-tie event. I already know this will be the place you’ll want to come to be dressed up. If you stop somewhere on the way to buy cigarettes or whatever, they will see you all dressed up, and everyone will know where you’re going, to Mojave Gold.”

Nigel Roman, who’s the production manager, brings about twenty years of experience to the business. He spoke about the hope he has for Mojave Gold. “I hope it becomes everything we want it to be. I want us to develop and grow into whatever it is we’re supposed to be. Some locals talk about different places being cursed… People need to realize no, we just need to continue and not stop. We need to keep coming at it with an open heart and an open ear. Give it a shot, give us a chance to show you that we really care, because we want to be here to stay. A community dies off pretty quickly if it doesn’t have ‘a place’ to go be themselves. We want to be that place.”

All photos by Ben Lolwing