Desert Edge Brewery At the Pub

Excellent service and wonderful food! I had the warm Italian salad and was delish. The pesto on the bread… amazing! Had some wine instead of beer but the bar was hopping at happy hour! Try it. I know I’ll be back!

Ordered smoked turkey sandwich and chicken corn chowder soup. It was good food. We will go back and definitely get dessert. They looked yummy.

Cool place. After ordering a pitcher of warm beer to pour in warm glasses decided Pat our server was not having a good day which led us leaving in search of food else where, which is ok because nothing on the menu appealed to me for dinner.

The beers here were fantastic. I had heard great things and was quite impressed and especially enjoyed the Rye!
I spent $ 17 for the steak medallions and felt like I was left wanting for what I spent. The black bean and goat cheese quesadilla was really good however!
Service was pretty mediocre. I had to stop the waitress 2 or 3 times to get another drink or put only order.
Good thing their beer is so good!

A huge plus of this place is that it’s got lots of seating – I’ve never had to wait for a table. Their beers are on-​point – the Utah Pale Ale is especially great. Huge fan of their salsa, and they give you a generously-​sized bowl of it with the chips n salsa and nachos (which are delicious). My favorite entrée is the black bean veggie burger – it’s hearty and topped with awesome cheese and other stuff that makes it bomb (pro tip: get a side of creamy balsamic to dip it in). Consistently good, and also a pretty comfortable place to take kids.

So, back in the 70’s and 80’s this place was simply called «The Pub,» and was a staple of Trolly Square even then. While a college student of that time, The Pub served as a go to place for both food and drink. In the 90’s the place was expanded and become the Desert Edge Brewery.
Ive always been quite happy with the beers brewed here. A couple of my favorites (The Pub Pilsner and the Latter Day Stout) haven’t changed since the beginning of the «brewery era.» They’ve also retained the rare roast beef sandwich and French Onion soup as menu items. These have been served here for over 35 years. Problem with this however is that the quality of these items has slowly slipped over time. I don’t even bother with the soup anymore. The Mexican food options also used to be well made and tasty. Not so much anymore.
Several years ago they went beyond a microbrewery focus and added spirits and cocktails to their drink offerings. I always thought that was a good move, however, even after several years of having time to develop the cocktail program, it remains overpriced and underwhelming. A couple of the cocktails taste nice but are almost systematically made with improper techniques (they love to stir their cocktails with swizzle sticks for example).
Like so many bars I visit nowadays this bar too suffers from well meaning but undertrained and unprofessional staff. While a couple of the bartenders have been here for many years they remain undertrained in my opinion. Don’t ask too many questions about product or brewing/​cocktail making techniques either, as this staff gets very defensive. Bartenders also spend a great deal of time socializing with each other and their «friends,» while at the same time being consistently brusk and inattentive to most others. The attitudes definitely need to be adjusted and put in check. Just because you’ve been working here for 10 years doesn’t make this place your living room! I suggest that it’s time for a couple of the more long term bartenders to consider a career change.
Tips: Avoid the cocktails and stick with beer. The beer is the best and most consistent thing going here. If you must eat here I think the roast beef sandwich is still the way to go

I’ve only been here once for food. Once for drinks. Full disclosure, i wanted french fries and they just don’t have them here. The chips that came with my food instead only made me angry. The sandwich was okay. But not worth talking about it was just «A-​OK» I likely wont be back unless we’re invited to go out with friends or something. On the other hand i love the location.

This place has a nice ambiance to it. The beer selection is OK. The food here is mediocre. I wouldn’t come here for awesome food. We came here because we can have dinner and drinks and bring our small child with us. I had the Confit chicken breast with a sausage ragu. I would not order this dish again. The appetizers are decent. The waiter did a mediocre job.

We came here again with family based on our fanatic review and it was such a disappointment. We started off with the crab cakes as appetizers and it was difficult to get down because they were so terribly tasting, not to mention I had a huge bite of white onion that was off-​putting. Our meals came after and seemed to follow suit. Our waters weren’t refilled and at this point we were a bit fed up with each of our meals and had a ballet to go to so we asked the waitress to bring boxes. We waited over ten minutes and were left with the choice to wait longer and go to the ballet late or leave practically full plates on the table. Needless to say none of us were too saddened by leaving our food but it was annoying none the least.

I love this place! There beers are great and the food as well. I usually get a sandwich with the French onion soup. Thursday’s they have my favorite pasta salad and I try and get there every Thursday. Everything I have had on the menu has been great. The staff is awesome especially Marisa! I’ve been coming here for at least ten years and it’s one of my regular places. Parking has never been an issue either. I highly recommend going to this place for a beer and grub.

Fun place to go, great spot in Trolley Square. Food is pretty good, my kids like it a lot. Not too sure why they advertise, «3.2% and proud of it»… I asked a waitress and she tried to explain to me that ABV means it’s NOT lightweight. Now being someone that brews craft beer, I tried to explain to her that ABW would make sense in what she said, but she got mad and left the table, haha. To this day I am still not sure why they are proud to serve 3.2% ABV beer that has the punch of supermarket beer

I went with my co workers, a party of 25 which is a huge group. The service was great, and the food came up pretty fast. I got hot pasta which is really good. All of my co workers liked here. I will def come back for friends hanging out with good food.

Tried to eat there tonight 7pm (friday night), as our party walked in server said «good luck finding a seat»! RUDE.
Then we found a table only to have a faster couple run over and sit at.
Would never attempt to go here again.
My suggestion — need a seating wait list like most restaurants have for dinner time.

It’s a 3.5 really. I ate here almost 9 years when i owned a store in Trolley so I think I am just sick of it. I love the beer tho. Get a growler and get it refilled any time you want. Parking to get in this place is still a big issue as of all of Trolley still is. Servers are for the most part really good at what they do and have been working there for years. The younger ones are very awkward especially when they see a big group actually communicating to one another rather than on our phones, lol. She kept hassling us to order when she clearly watched us talk. I can understand to rush us if there is a wait for a table but it was not busy. The daily specials are the way to go here, actually everything on the menu is straight forward. Nothing to wow you but good food.

My husband and I joke that the menu at Desert Edge looks terrible, but it doesn’t matter what terrible-​sounding thing you pick because it’s all solidly good to mind-​blowing delicious.
And it’s true.
The menu here (to me) reads super-​boring, like an SNL sketch about things white people order at restaurants… except that it’s actually worth ordering. I’ve been going here for years (my last review was in 2010… I’ve probably been here 30+ times since then), and I’ve come to just start picking things at semi-​random, but generally find the specials are the way to go. If you see the pot roast on special, GET IT! The French onion soup is another must-​have, and if I’m not feeling the specials, I’ll go for just about any sandwich (I like the reuben and the BBQ pork). I’m still (even after 5 years) a little annoyed at the chips-​as-​a-​side thing (fine for a deli, seems like a lazy side here), but their salads are a fine choice instead.
I’m not a dessert person, or a cocktail person, but this is a rare place where I often do one or the other… or both… don’t judge! They’re rarely too sweet, and are usually something out of the ordinary, like an Aztec chocolate with caramel tart, which was like a thin, densely chocolate, and intensely rich pie.
Service has always been and continues to be fast and friendly, and the atmosphere continues to skew a little older and wealthier than other brewpubs (a good thing IMHO, even though I’m in my 20s and nothing close to wealthy myself). On a given night, you’ll see it filled with groups of friends and couples in their late 30s and beyond chatting over beer, which is how I like my pubs.

Located within the Trolley Square, Desert Edge was nice little meet up spot if you shop in the area such as the Whole Food behind them or looking for a place with less hassle parking near the downtown area. The layout can be a bit confusing if you have never been there, as they seem to have multiple entrances and area with bridge overpass. I actually ended up circling around the block before locating the exact entrance.
After visiting them a few times, oddly enough, the best part of their food were the presentation, they always try to make quite colorful. We got the Santa Fe Burger and Mushroom Burger this last time, both looked very nice on the presentation despite having different sides. The flavors on the burgers were quite nice and the meats were tender. The pasta side was good, but I think I prefer the fruits better.
I did not get a chance to try their alcohols, and they seem to have a decent selection here. Service was great, and I would not be against coming here again. The vibe also seems a bit hipster-​ish here.

The place I choose for dinner tonight we excellent. I am glad I made the walk. Small menu so excellent choices.
Staffers very good and my bartender and one of the managers did an excellent job. Bartender was very good to suggest some excellent choices and his recommendations were spot on. The server that brought me the yummy sirloin salad was one Of the managers and she was wonderful
I brought up an issue with the cook staff and hopefully they address the observed behavior by the line cooks. Not my circus not my monkeys for sure!
Overall impressed with the location, small but excellent menu and very, very good beers they have!

I really had high hopes of this place when I walked in. It just looks awesome. The entire space is just perfect of a brew-​pub. I was a little underwhelmed by it all though. It was good, but not great.
Our service was really good. Friendly, attentive, nice. They did it all.
The beer: not bad considering it is all an draught, but it lacked that ever so wonderful alcohol content. I cant fault them on that though, its not by choice. I do like that they offer sample pours of their brews… very smart and convenient way to try all the beers.
Food was decent. Nothing to write home about, but also not something to talk bad about. I had the pulled pork sandwich with the pasta of the day. Also, we started with some calamari. Calamari was good. Cooked well and had decent flavor. Pulled pork was just okay. I thought it was kind of bland actually and also I would have liked a little more sauce on the sandwich.
I’ll give it another try because I think it has a ton of potential.

The Desert Edge has earned heavy rotation in my bull pen for many years now. The food is on balance good quality and well executed. Somebody in the kitchen clearly has a southwest background or preoccupation, so the menu is not the same old pub grub you find in many other places, e.g. fries, fish and chips, hot wings and chicken fingers. I find the burgers just okay, competent, appropriately priced, but not transcendent.
The hot roast-​beef sandwich however is fantastic and could be the best thing on the menu. If your with a group and sharing many items you will not go wrong with the nachos.
The beer is consistently good to very, very good. If Utah can ever move past this childish 4.0% nonsense, I’m confident their brewery will produce some truly remarkable brews (but that’s an article for another day). They also do nice seasonals, the centennial steamer and more recently a helles lager are standouts for me.
The atmosphere is sober, clean, appropriately lit and comfortable. Lots of exposed stone and natural elements from the space’s train station past. It does get loud sometimes, but who cares.
Since becoming a full bar they have installed some flat screens behind the bar, so it is not a bad place to catch a game, which was not always the case in years past.
The patio is charming in summer, though not massive. They still have a handful of restaurant booths on the east side of the dining room I suspect date back to «The Pub» days that I wish they would update.
I haven’t done real research on this, but I think they may also have the cheapest «craft» pitchers around. Note to barflies, they only serve their own beer, you won’t find a lone tap of PBR or Silver Bullet.
All in all Desert Edge is like a good pair of jeans: you’ll have them forever and they work with everything.

Their shirts state 3.2 beer and proud off it. Okay, they have made their peace with the restrictive Utah alcohol laws and have made a niche for some decent tasting albeit watery beers. The Fun named Latter Day Stout and the Utah Pale were my favorites, while the others were unremarkable. I tried 50 cent tasters of several of the beers including the Porter, Desert Hell, and Augustus Amber which weren’t great in my opinion, but as stated The Utah Pale has some good hop flavors somehow in a low ABV beer. The food menu looked like what you would expect, we shared a carrot cake slice which was huge and tasty.
I had been meaning to head out to Trolley Square which is a hike (over a mile) from downtown especially in Winter, but you can take the UTA to get you closer. Probably won’t be back as there are closer watering holes and breweries in/​around SLC, but I won’t mind having another Utah Pale if on the menu