1501 Uptown Gastropub, Palm Springs
1501 Uptown Gastropub, Palm Springs
Sour early experience, but there's still hope for a sweet future.
Our star rating: None (too new)
Address: 1501 North Palm Canyon Drive (At Stevens Road), Palm Springs, CA 92262
Ph: 760-320-1501
Oh gosh, it’s time for my first negative review here on The Desert Diner. I’m bummed because I have held such high hopes for this new spot. But after a special meal turned sour on a recent weekend night, it’s time to spill the beans.
First, please note that we did not assign a star rating to this review as we normally do. It takes a while for even the most experienced restaurateurs to conjure up the magic to make a consistently good restaurant. It’s only fair to give new establishments a wide berth as they iron out the kinks. So with this review, and in future reviews for places open less than three or four months, we’ll refrain from assigning stars. (1501 Uptown Gastropub opened in mid-February, 2021.)
Overall, the inventive menu really whet our appetites and the food was excellent so things are under control in the kitchen….But we found problems with waitstaff and bartender training.
The Uptown Gastropub was filling up and buzzy as we arrived on time for our reservation (a must these days as the place has been the talk of the town). A friendly host seated us right away at an outside table overlooking North Palm Canyon Drive, but it took a while for the server to show up, greet us, and take our drinks order (an old fashioned, a bourbon and pineapple juice and a vodka-cranberry).
Then we waited… and waited. It took about 15 minutes to get our drinks, with no apologies or acknowledgements from that staff that it was taking too long. Another server finally brought our drinks out and seemed stressed and confused about where to place them.
Then we all looked at our companion’s “old fashioned” and thought, “Whoops. Bartender musta made a bourbon and ginger ale instead.” But the pale beverage had a tiny wedge of orange and a cherry on a pick, so, hmm, maybe it’s a new recipe or something?
Usually an old fashioned comes out a more ruddy color, garnished with an orange peel and served over a single large ice cube. This was was a mostly tasteless glass of what seemed like bourbon, an over-pour of simple syrup and an under-pour of bitters.
So after what seemed like an eternity, the server reappeared and we waved her over. We explained our issue with the drink and sent it back for a re-do and waited…and waited another 20 minutes. Finally, at about 7:45 pm, an hour after we sat down, we all had a drink.
Thankfully the second try tasted and looked a bit more like the real thing, but was still on the pale, watery side, considering the $15 price. All the server could say was, “Sorry, but someone else took your drink so I had to have another one made.”
Thankfully this was a special meal with family visiting from out of town, so we had plenty to talk about, and we quickly moved on from the kerfuffle over the drinks.
But the experience continued to worsen.
In the longish interlude between ordering and getting drinks, we placed our food order from the wonderfully eclectic menu. (You can see the whole menu here.)
We were hungry, so for starters we asked for a “House-made Sourdough Pretzel” appetizer ($6 + $4 with beer cheese), plus a Local Date and Arugula Salad ($14)- with toasted pepetas, pancetta, laura chenel chevre, port vinaigrette as well as a spring salad ($14) with fava beans, asparagus, english peas, watercress, ricotta salata, pistachios, clementine vinaigrette. The Grilled Romaine Salad with green goddess dressing ($14) tempted us, too.
For mains, as is my recent habit, I chose the Vegan Shepherd’s Pie, ($22) made with slow braised wild mushrooms, sherry, mirepoix, olive oil mashed english peas, and cilantro vin) but was tempted by the Chicken Fried Chicken sandwich. Thankfully one of my companions ordered that. Another asked for the Reuben sandwich which comes with horseradish-seasoned cole slaw, along with a warning from our server about the heat.
Our fourth considered the cleverly-priced 1501 Burger ($15.01), but ended up choosing Roly’s “Cubano” pressed under Iron Skillet ($15), which included roast pork, Virginia ham, gruyere, dill pickles, and sour cherry dijon mustard.
Shortly after the drinks mishap, a food runner arrived and hastily placed our mains on the table. After he left, we thought, “Wait a minute… we were still waiting for that pretzel appetizer and two salads.” But since we were so hungry by that time, we started to eat, hoping our server might show up shortly to check on things, and we could inquire about the missing items. But just when we really needed some quick attention, she was nowhere to be found.
Throughout our meal, I noticed that a friendly, hands-on manager type person was hovering around checking on things, so we waved him over and began to explain what was happening… and then our waiter showed up to listen in.
At this point, we refused the forgotten or misplaced starters since we were well into our mains. (Which we all enjoyed— as stated before, the kitchen is in great shape! I’d order the Shepherd’s Pie again for sure.) The manager sort of took over handling our situation, said the missing items would be removed from our bill and offered us a round of free desserts, which we initially refused because we had birthday cake waiting at home.
His gallant efforts at service recovery eventually worked, and he convinced us to try two of the blackberry crumbles a la mode. I’m so glad we did as they were delicious, and did help ease our distress over the meal.
Despite this slip up, we’ll likely be going back to give 1501 Uptown Gastropub another try since it’s convenient to our house, and we have so many friends eager to try it. The Saturday and Sunday brunch menu looks outstanding, too. (See it here.)
The space is beautifully designed, especially the tables along the Stevens Road side. But the outdoor tables along North Palm Canyon feel cut off from the fun hubbub on the other side of a glass wall. And when those irritating groups of un-mufflered motorcyclists roar by, it can intrude on conversation.
