PUBLISHED WEEKLY
Weekend
Dining, wine country, hospitality, events, day trips — the weekend life of California's Inland corridor.
THIS WEEKEND’S TOP PICK
More Top Picks
Dining & Restaurants
Openings, chef changes, dining destinations across the IE corridor.
Your weekend, already planned.
The best of IE dining, wine country, and what's on — in your inbox every Friday morning. Free.
Weekend Archive
Where to watch fireworks across the IE this Fourth of July weekend
The Fourth lands on a Saturday this year, the back end of a three-day weekend and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration — and the region's public shows split cleanly into two kinds of night out: free hometown displays you walk to, and ticketed destinations worth the drive.
Doffo Winery kicks off its summer concert run with a Jimmy Buffett tribute
Temecula's Doffo Winery opens its every-other-Saturday summer concert series Saturday with a Jimmy Buffett tribute — outdoor stage, estate pours, and a grazing-table option, the wine-country evening that doesn't require a tasting-room reservation.
The State opens a third IE location in downtown Riverside
The regional gastropub — already running in Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga — has opened on Main Street in downtown Riverside, with a speakeasy still to come, adding to a downtown core that keeps getting denser with sit-down dining.
All-you-can-eat churrasco lands in the IE: Fogo de Chão now open in Rancho Cucamonga
The Brazilian steakhouse chain has opened at Victoria Gardens — open-flame churrasco grill, gaucho carvers working the floor, and an all-day Bar Fogo happy hour that undercuts most of the IE's white-tablecloth competition.
Apple country without the fall crowds: Oak Glen for a summer day trip
Oak Glen — the historic apple-growing strip above Yucaipa — runs its orchards, cider stands, and preserve trails all summer, minus the bumper-to-bumper September crush that defines its high season.
Free 103rd Redlands Bowl season opens Friday with an ELO tribute
The longest continuously running no-admission music festival in the country runs its 103rd summer in Redlands — and Friday's opener is the touring group billed as the world's best Electric Light Orchestra tribute. No ticket, no charge, free parking.
Free live music returns to Big Bear Saturday, with motocross stunts between sets
Big Bear's admission-free summer concert series brings Alien Ant Farm to the Moonridge Lot this Saturday — a full evening of rock, freestyle-motocross demos, and food trucks at 7,000 feet, where the air runs twenty degrees cooler than the valley floor.
Ride the midway and eat your way through the San Diego County Fair this weekend
San Diego County Fair: SoCal’s biggest fair is running at Del Mar through July 5 — rides, deep-fried everything, livestock, and a nightly concert series — a full-day trip about two hours south.
Trade the valley heat for pines and galleries in Idyllwild this weekend
Visit California: A pine-shaded village at 5,400 feet in the San Jacinto Mountains, Idyllwild trades the valley heat for galleries, trailheads, and cooler air — a day trip without the Big Bear crowds.
Journey USA plays the Fox in downtown Riverside Saturday night
Fox Performing Arts Center: The Journey tribute band brings the arena-rock catalog to the restored 1929 Fox in downtown Riverside for one night.
Pechanga opens its 4.5-acre Cove pool for the summer season in Temecula
Pechanga Resort Casino: The resort's tropical pool complex — four pools, two waterslides, a swim-up bar — is open for the season, a day-trip option in Temecula wine country.
Gabriel Iglesias plays Yaamava' Theater in Highland Saturday
Yaamava' Resort & Casino: The comedian headlines the theater at California's largest casino, in San Bernardino County's foothills, for one of two shows at the venue this weekend.
A restored 1912 citrus packing house now holds 20-plus IE food stalls in downtown Redlands
Redlands Public Market: The Mutual Orange Distributors packinghouse sat vacant for years until an $11M restoration reopened it as a food hall of mostly IE-based, chef-owned stalls — barbecue, ramen, Taiwanese, Indian-Mexican fusion, and a basement speakeasy.
Notebook Cafe holds grand opening in downtown Riverside
The Raincross Gazette: Brothers John and Michael Leyba, with Michael's wife Julia, are betting that a 30-plus-drink menu and what they call "guest service" can carve out room in a downtown already thick with coffee shops — the soft-opening crowd included a couple who drove in from Orange County to try it.
Run the Pacific Crest Trail at the Holcomb Valley Trail Run in Big Bear
Run Big Bear: The 30th-annual trail run takes over Big Bear's high-country singletrack this weekend — 33, 15, 9, and 5-mile races at 7,000-plus feet, where it's cooler than the valley floor.
Comedian Vicki Barbolak plays two shows at Pechanga Saturday
Pechanga Resort Casino: Two stand-up sets, 7 and 9 p.m., in the 1,200-seat Pechanga Theater — the Temecula end of the corridor's weekend tribal-hospitality slate.
Champagne jazz on the lake at Thornton Winery
Thornton Winery: The valley's longest-running outdoor concert series runs its Saturday-evening jazz night — with a no-cover daytime set Sunday from Taylor Gray.
Live music up and down Temecula's wineries this Saturday
Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association: A dozen-plus tasting rooms run live sets Saturday afternoon — most free with tasting — from Wiens and Fazeli to Robert Renzoni and Leoness.
A night of rock tributes at Rancho Cucamonga's Arrow Room
Citrus Belt Review: Tributes to AC/DC, Soundgarden, Pantera, and Black Sabbath share one Saturday bill inside Haven City Market's new music room.
The Cheech opens a 126-work Chicano art show on migration and identity
Citrus Belt Review: The museum's fourth-anniversary exhibition pulls 126 works by 61 artists into a show built to speak to the present moment — on view now in downtown Riverside.