It all started with a chicken sandwich.
In the late 1990s, Raymond Moore often ate lunch at John’s, a modest hash house in Palm Desert. He and Charlie Pasarell, founders of a modest tennis tournament that had steadily outgrown its 1976 origins at Mission Hills Country Club and several other Coachella Valley locations, were on the brink of opening a huge tournament venue after 13 years of residency at what is now the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas.
In addition to state-of-the-art facilities including the second largest tennis stadium in the world (16,100 seats) and other match and practice courts covering 54 acres, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden would boast a big-screen TV outside Stadium 1 and an array of food concessions around the surrounding lawn. For the first time, Moore and Pasarell were in charge of more than tennis competition. “One of the reasons we moved from the Hyatt,” Moore explains, “is we didn’t control all the revenue streams. And the players were making demands every year. Increasing prize money. We reached a stage where staying at the Hyatt was no longer affordable.”
Their company, PM Sports Management, had to graduate from tenancy to tournament ownership. “Now we were masters of our own universe,” Moore says. “Now we were looking to supplant, fill in, all the things Hyatt had provided. … We didn’t have parking, we didn’t have food and beverages, we didn’t have a lot of things that the Hyatt had.”
At John’s in Palm Desert, owner George Argyros serves former tournament director Raymond Moore a chicken sandwich 25 years after inking the deal that brought John’s to the Tennis Garden.
Then there was John’s. It had what Moore deemed “a great sandwich” he ordered at every visit. He was in good company. “I would always see mail trucks,” Moore recalls. “The postmen would be having lunch there. And police. [The] parking lot was always full.” The food was good, and it was cheap. One day, Moore asked the guy in the golf shirt behind the counter if he was the proprietor. Not long after, George Argyros and Raymond Moore cut a deal, and John’s became the first independent vendor signed for the inaugural tournament at the Tennis Garden.
Twenty-five years later, Moore says, “It’s been the best deal we’ve made.” John’s is the only original food purveyor remaining at the BNP Paribas Open.
“We made a contract,” Argyros says, “and we’ve never had to look over our shoulder to see whether they kept their end of the bargain. I’m very, very happy.”
As the tournament evolved into the BNP Paribas Open, layers of management were added to run the massive event that drew nearly 500,000 spectators last year. Desert Champions, of which Moore is the CEO, operates the tournament, now owned by Larry Ellison of Oracle fame. Starting in 2024, Desert Champions hired Sodexo Live! to manage food and beverage operations and raise the culinary bar. According to Philippe Dore, Desert Champions’ chief marketing officer, “We wanted to elevate the hospitality, the event experience.”
One notable voice in that conversation was Ellison’s. “Larry pays rapt attention to the food,” Moore says. In conjunction with Desert Champions, Sodexo is in charge of the entire Tennis Garden — the suites and restaurants in Stadiums 1 and 2 (except for Nobu), the players’ restaurant, the media suite — and manages every vendor in what the Tennis Garden calls the “food village” because “food court” sounds so mall. A global event production company, Sodexo Live! doesn’t do “mall.” Its clients include the French Open, the Olympic Games, and the Seattle Mariners, and its network embraces celebrity chefs, fancy liquor labels, and suppliers across all the food groups, main to arcane.
Then there’s John’s. Although its master has changed, its contract has not. Argyros is grandfathered into the original deal with Moore. “When you have someone new like Sodexo coming in,” Moore explains, “[they] say, ‘We want control of everything,’ and we say, ‘OK, but with one exception. We have this vendor, John’s, who will have this space.’ ”
Ellison’s personal chef, Christian Page, is present in the food village because Ellison wanted him there. Customers of Page’s Love Love Chicken can pair its $19 tenders with a side of white sturgeon caviar. For $89. Among other foodie favorites populating the Tennis Garden in 2024 were celebrity chef Richard Blais, who opened Kestrel at nearby Indian Wells Golf Resort late last year; Chef Tanya’s Kitchen, by way of its two vegan Coachella Valley restaurants; and Moto, a Seattle pizzeria that cut its slices into rectangles and staffed the kitchen with a robot.
John’s in Palm Desert.
Most of the food vendors from last year are returning in 2025, as are six bars.
Then there’s John’s. It’s owned by a Greek immigrant who learned English at Long Beach City College, graduated from Long Beach State, and forged a long and happy marriage to Desert Champions while their tennis-tournament baby grew up to draw more spectators than the French Open. If Palm Desert John’s is definitely diner, the taste of Greece is larded through its generous menu, and Tennis Garden John’s leans into that Mediterranean influence. Jana Koch, a tennis fan from Laguna Beach who attends the BNP every year, raves about the Greek salad that comes with chicken or mahi mahi.
Temp workers staff most of the restaurant-branded concessions, which operate under a licensing agreement by Sodexo as, essentially, a franchise. They often prepackage orders for efficiency and to minimize lines.
Then there’s John’s. Koch always requests extra olives and no red onions, and she always gets the salad she wants. “We make everything there,” Argyros says. “Nothing is brought packaged from the restaurant. We make it from scratch every day.”
Argyros has always sourced his own food and equipped his own tent. He brings staff to the venue from his restaurant. “We had to have that,” Moore says of the Tennis Garden’s early years. “We didn’t have expertise in that or [vendor staffing]. … He had it all. Our leap of faith was: He produces a good product priced very reasonably that would translate well with our clientele. That’s what we saw.”
Invariably, John’s has the fastest service at the tournament, a difficult feat when the rush occurs not by the clock, but by the court action. “He’s done it so long, he’s got the systems,” according to a former Sodexo executive. “He can turn the line, he’s got more points of sale than anybody, and we gave him an extra POS. … Transaction time is everything. If you’re able to have faster transaction times, you’re going to have a happier customer and more sales.”
Behind the line at Palm Desert John’s.
Sodexo, in conjunction with Desert Champions and the vendors, determines menus and pricing. It assigns tent space, supplies equipment, and manages the temp staffing and scheduling.
Then there’s John’s. “George comes in two weeks before the tournament,” Moore notes, “the only vendor that does that. He makes sure that his tent is spotless, clean, and everything functions. He does a lot of test runs, and by the time we start, he’s ready to go. A lot of the other vendors come in two or three days before.”
During the tournament, Argyros arrives at the garden early in the morning and leaves last at night. He’s too busy to survey other food operations. “Whatever their menus are, their prices, would not affect my operation,” he says. Like the others, he discusses menu and prices with Desert Champions in advance, but both have remained pretty much the same for 25 years, save for inflation. “I would never set my prices according to the guy next door.”
Sodexo, which pays the taxes, Desert Champions, and the vendor split the revenue, with the latter receiving the lion’s share. And John’s is head of the revenue class. “He was, for every single year, … our best vendor by far,” Moore says. “In 2024, it was the first time another vendor booked more revenue than him, but [by a] minuscule [amount] … a couple of thousand.”
That vendor was Moto. But the pizza place is in Stadium 1. John’s is across the lawn from the courts and past the outdoor stage, in the food village.
Like the work required to be a No. 1–ranked tennis player, success for food providers at the BNP Paribas Open is all about talent and routine. And the ability to take a punch. The wind can kick up at any time. Rain caused disruptions several times last year, and who could have anticipated the swarm of bees that stopped play for nearly two hours during a quarterfinal match in Stadium 1?
Then there’s John’s. “That’s just part of business,” Argyros says about the 2024 drama. “You just roll with it. … At the end of two weeks, there’s been half a million people. Something’s gonna happen.”
Comfort food to the rescue. Like a good chicken sandwich.
