What it is
Windsor is a neighborhood tavern on Central Avenue two blocks north of Camelback Road, in the stretch of midtown Phoenix that calls itself uptown, and it is the clearest expression of what Upward Projects does. The group, run by Craig and Kris DeMarco and Lauren and Wyatt Bailey, started with Postino in a former Arcadia post office and made a formula of it: an old building, a big patio, a short menu that is better than it needs to be, and drink pricing that gets the neighborhood in the door before five. Windsor, named for the Windsor Square neighborhood of 1930s houses behind it, applies that to a tavern. There is a long bar inside, a fenced backyard patio with lights strung over long tables, a menu of American comfort food, a weekend brunch and a daily happy hour until 5 PM.
Churn is the other half. In the same building, with its own door, it scoops small-batch ice cream in a rotating list of flavors, bakes cookies every day, builds sundaes and floats, and sells nostalgic candy and toys off a wall, which makes it the neighborhood’s dessert and the reason children agree to the evening. Across Central Avenue is Federal Pizza, the same group’s pizzeria in an Al Beadle bank; the three together have made this corner the center of uptown’s evenings since the early 2010s.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
Scottsdale has Postino Highland, and the formula works there too, but Windsor is the one Upward Projects place without a Scottsdale copy and the one that feels most like somewhere people live. Our what to eat note is honest that Scottsdale’s casual dinners lean toward the resort and the scene; this is the Phoenix version of the neighborhood tavern that Old Town used to have, with a patio that beats most of them and a bill that is lower. The happy hour guide would list the drink deal if it were in the city.
The practical version
Twenty-two minutes from Old Town west on Camelback Road. Park in the lot or on Colter Street. Open daily from 11 AM to around midnight; brunch on weekends; reserve for brunch and Friday nights, walk in otherwise. Eat on the patio from October to April and inside in summer. Finish at Churn.
When to go
October through April, from 4:30 PM on a weeknight, is the Windsor evening: patio table, drinks before the five o’clock change in pricing, dinner as the lights come on, Churn after. Weekend brunch is the other institution, busy from ten, and worth a reservation. Summer moves everything inside, where the bar room is cool and loud, and the patio comes back to life after dark.
What to order
The menu is American tavern food, short and seasonal: a burger that the neighborhood argues about, salads big enough to be dinner, a pot pie or a roast in winter, fried chicken, a few sandwiches at lunch. The cocktails are the group’s house style, well made and not precious, and the beer list leans local. Brunch is eggs, pancakes and the drinks that go with them. Our best brunch note names this as the Phoenix brunch worth the drive when the Scottsdale lines are long.
At Churn, the seasonal flavors are the ones to try, and the cookies are baked that morning. The sundae is for sharing. The candy wall is organized to stop a child in the doorway.
Windsor Square and uptown
The restaurant sits at the bottom of the Windsor Square and Medlock Place historic districts, 1920s and 1930s houses on streets that are worth a loop after dinner. Uptown’s restaurant row runs along Central from Camelback north to Bethany Home, with Federal Pizza across the street, a dozen other restaurants within a few blocks, and the Melrose District’s vintage shops a mile west on Seventh Avenue.
With kids
Good: the patio has room, the menu has a burger, brunch is loud enough that nobody minds a toddler, and Churn is a reward that works. After eight on a weekend it is a bar.
The story
Upward Projects began in 2001 when Craig DeMarco and Lauren Bailey opened Postino in a 1940s post office on 40th Street in Arcadia and discovered that a neighborhood would support a wine bar with bruschetta boards and a patio if the room felt like it had always been there. The group’s method since has been to find an old building in a Phoenix neighborhood that is about to come back, keep what is good about the structure, and open something the people within a mile will use three times a week. Windsor and Churn, on a corner of Central Avenue that was in the early 2010s mostly parking and a few surviving midcentury storefronts, were the group’s bet on uptown, and Federal Pizza followed across the street in October 2012 in the 1950s First Federal Savings building by Al Beadle.
The bet paid. The corner became the center of uptown’s evening, the light rail along Central brought people from downtown, and the group went on to open Joyride Taco House, more Postinos across Arizona and beyond, and a second Federal Pizza at the redeveloped Paradise Valley Mall. Windsor stayed what it was: a tavern with a yard, named for the neighborhood behind it.
The Scottsdale connection
Upward Projects reached Scottsdale with Postino Highland, which serves the same bruschetta and the same drink deal to a different crowd. Windsor is the one the Phoenix locals keep for themselves, and for a Scottsdale visitor it pairs with the Sugar Bowl as the other end of a Valley ice-cream argument: Scottsdale’s 1958 pink parlor against uptown’s small-batch counter, and no reason not to have both in a week.
Getting there
Camelback Road west from Old Town for seven miles to Central Avenue, then north two blocks; Windsor is on the east side at Colter Street, about twenty-two minutes with no traffic. Park in the restaurant’s lot or on Colter and the side streets of Windsor Square. The Central/Camelback light-rail stop is a block south, useful from a downtown hotel. From Scottsdale, drive or rideshare; the happy hour is the argument for the latter.