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| - To be fair, I generally stay as far away from swanky Southpark as possible except for an occasional trip to Earthfare. However restaurant week and the meat-eater's friend being a chef at Upstream led us to visit this week. We showed up around 7:30 during restaurant week, expecting a bit of a wait. The hostess was very pleasant and offered seating outside on the patio right away or suggested a drink in the bar while we waited. We chose the bar.
This seems to be more of an older 50+ crowd with a few exceptions. Mostly business casual attire but I didn't feel out of place in dressed up jeans. The décor is traditional Southpark - dark woods and colors.
The bartender greeted us promptly, presented the wine list and gave us a few minutes to decide. They have an extensive (and pricey) wine list and a handful of specialty cocktails and martinis. Drinks were served and that was the extent of our bartender interaction. He seemed to get in the weeds a bit with all the server orders coming in. Not a big issue as we didn't really need anything else but could be a problem if we were trying to order at the bar.
Our wait was as promised - approximately thirty minutes. The dining room is a bit smaller than I anticipated but nicely laid out. You have a glimpse at the open kitchen but not enough to gawk during your whole meal and enough privacy at the tables and booths that you don't hear your neighbors' conversations. Our server greeted us, got our new drink order and came back to discuss the special. I must admit, I enjoyed freaking him out by dropping the "I'm a vegan" on him. I doubt this is a normal request at Upstream and I wouldn't dream of showing up without advance warning (which we'd done via the friend). He consulted with the kitchen and came back looking much more relaxed and surprised with how easy it would be to accommodate me. I had the Shaved Athena Melon salad sans ham, tomato risotto sans cheese and a lovely sorbet sampler with warmed peaches. The sorbet, while really good, isn't made in house. Meat-eater had the Smoked Cod Cake and Lobster cakes, Snake River Ranch Wagyu Flank Steak and French Macaroons. He's still talking about the cod and lobster cakes and how good they were. I really enjoyed all my courses. The salad did need a little "oomph" to make up for the lack of salty ham but overall very happy with our meals.
I was impressed with the service. Our plates were removed quickly, our server was present in the dining room but not in the way, courses were served promptly and glasses kept full.
Upstream isn't my normal type of preferred dining or cuisine but I appreciate any place that has excellent service and chefs that know their food and are willing to make accommodations in a gracious manner for special diets. I know Upstream is part of the Harper's Group but I thought it had enough personality to not be classified "just another corporate place".
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