KAISER RESTAURANT GROUP
a family affair
W
hen young Kaiser Morcus immigrated to the
US from Lebanon in 1956, he couldn’t have
foreseen the path that has made him an icon
in the Palm Springs hospitality arena.
Kaiser settled in Colorado where
he married, raised his family, and
quickly made a name for himself
in Denver and Vail as a hotelier
and restaurateur (the Sitzmark
Lodge that he built in Vail in 1969
is still thriving). After thirty-four
years of hard work and impressive success, Kaiser retired to the
Coachella Valley In 1992 to kick
back, play a little golf, and enjoy
the warm sunshine.
He got impatient with knocking that little white ball back and forth across
the greens, and his brain revved back up to its full potential, returning him
to the restaurant business. In those days, there were only a handful of decent
restaurants in the Coachella Valley and he had an itch to create a really, really good restaurant. He opened Kaiser Grille in Palm Desert in 1992 and the
rest, as they say, is history. Kaiser Grille was innovative on many levels, and
reservations were hard to come by. The food was creative and delicious (he
imported Cholula Hot Sauce from Mexico for his restaurant at a time when
Americans only knew of Tabasco Sauce from Louisiana). He summoned his
eldest son Lee, who had earned a degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management
from the University of Denver and was managing restaurants in Chicago. In
1998, by popular demand, they opened a second Kaiser Grille at 205 S. Palm
Canyon in Palm Springs. The Palm Canyon Kaiser Grille recently underwent
a multi-million dollar remodel, creating a bar that’s conducive to schmoozing
and people watching, and more al fresco patio seating on Palm Canyon Drive.
The wood-burning pizza oven was untouched and is still delivering its usual
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