Townie Bagels | Bakery | Cafe — Restaurant in Palm Springs

Service was real bad, I believe his name was Eric, the tall guy with glasses and a hat, really set off a bad mood to start the order with. We greeted him, but he just looked at us without saying anything like we bothered him. We started our order, and every time we added something, it seemed like he was inconvenienced. Our ordering felt rushed and on top of that he got our order wrong. I asked about this after I got and saw receipt, he said he would take care of it to pretty much shoo me away. This place still hasn’t refunded or adjusted my bill. I had asked and wanted it to be adjusted on the spot and double checked, they said they would do it and I’d see it in 7-10 days, it’s been almost 3 weeks now and no news of this. Would I call this place scammy? Maybe. The money spent was not worth the bad service and food received.

Bagels were rock hard and bland. Wouldn’t recommend, but since it’s the only bagel joint in town, I guess there’s no other choice? In my opinion, getting your own bagels at Vons or Ralph’s beats this place.

EDIT/Response to owners reply: Rock hard a bit hard to believe? First, the two bagels Eric grabbed off the shelf were not toasted, and who knows how long they’ve been on the shelf for. They were definitely very, very tough and did not taste like a fresh bagel. Additionally, why did you not address the poor service provided by your employee? I’m not asking for a Michelin star level service, but acting normal and not a complete grouch right off the bat to patrons is the least we could have asked for. I’m sure most people feel the same way, but when you enter an establishment and get poor service prior to the food, the food will definitely taste different than intended under normal circumstances.

Given the slight aggressive nature of your response and inability to receive criticism, I’d prefer to not contact your store, last thing I want to do is to get into an unnecessary argument.

Response #2 Were the bagels edible? Yes of course, but these bagels were very, very, very tough as I previously mentioned. As if they'd been sitting out for quite some time.

On my receipt or ticket stub, it says the cashier was ERIC F, I have no idea who is who and how many employees you have who wear glasses, all I know is the man behind the register is allegedly ERIC F, who was about 6ft or taller, glasses, facial hair and wore a beret style hat.

Truthfully, I was very excited to visit your establishment as I was in Palm Springs for a birthday getaway and wanted to get some bagel sandwiches. But the interaction with whoever was behind the counter really soured the experience and taste...

This is a good business with solid baked goods and a community oriented, LGBTQ+ friendly, progressive outlook. I've always loved and supported it. This morning, I had a negative experience that others who are vegan or have vegan friends could also find. I ordered a Vegan Sandwich that is listed on the board for $7.29. The vegan sandwich items were rung up individually for a total of $9.85. This had happened a few weeks ago and I left without saying anything. However, this morning I told the cashier specifically that I wanted the sandwich on the board for $7.29. He turned around and looked at it, entered the items and again it was $9.85. He called over the supervisor who said enter this or that and then walked away. The cashier still got the same total. I said I don't understand why it's on the board for $7.29. He responded that it has all of those individual items and said, "do you want it or not?" I said I don't' understand it but will take it. Of course, it was busy on a Sunday morning, and I understand the pressure. Neither of us was happy about the interaction.

Later some tall guy (an Owner?) comes out a few times, looks at the board and takes notes. Maybe, finally it was being input into the computer, so it won't happen again? I have no idea. I was standing there waiting for my 2 sandwiches to be prepared (vegan always takes longer there) and no one said a word to me, other than a few whispers and glances after I had ordered.

I'm not sure if that says anything about the commitment to or understanding of vegan diets. Probably not because they have a few vegan items that are good. I think (and would like to think) it was a computer input problem that no one paid attention to because they don't get that many vegans. No one communicated anything to me like "thanks for pointing that out," or "you're correct," or "it was an error and we're sorry," etc. But I'm taking a break as a regular customer. It's not worth the aggravation on a beautiful Sunday morning. I told my husband he's free to go in the future of course but I'm done for a while....

I reeeallly wanted to like this place. I love nothing more than spending time in a locally owned coffee shop and I adore little bakeries. And this place is a quick easy bike ride away. But it just wasn’t good :(

I LOVE bagels and it’s been so long since I’ve had one!! I ordered the French toast bagel with the seasonal pumpkin spice cream cheese and a small regular coffee.

The bagel itself was small, hard and burned on the outside. It’s possible that the burn happened when they were toasting it? The bagel tasted vaguely like onion. Maybe but had been sitting on top of onion bagels at some point or picked up that flavor in the toaster? Other than that, it didn’t really have a flavor of its own, which was disappointing. Just mildly sweet with burn onion taste. Pretty gross.

Other than that it was a dry bagel without that great doughy chew or classic bagel skin it’s supposed to have. Not good. More like boring hard dry bread. And, this is a small thing, but also annoying - the cream cheese wasn’t spread on bagel. Most of it was coming out the hole - as in the cream cheese was just plopped in the middle and then sandwiched down. If you’re a bagel shop, spread the cream cheese with a little care… actually spread it on the bagel.

The coffee also wasn’t good. It was overly strong and kinda sour. Like it had been sitting in that carafe dispenser for a while…

All in all my disappointing bagel with cream cheese and small coffee was $8…!

And the vibe in this place wasn’t very welcoming either. It looks cute in the photos, but inside it doesn’t feel great. Not a place you want to sit and spend much time.

I’m disappointed because if this had been a good bagel and a nice experience, I probably would have been...