Imagine telling your spouse and friends that you want to drive out to a strip mall in the desert and eat airplane food for your birthday.
Luckily, despite their initial confusion, they indulged me and PS Air’s In-Flight Experience was a hoot and a half!
Opened in March of 2020, PS Air Bar is the creative brainchild of retired flight attendant Tom Beatty and winemaker Dennis Costa. Their aviation-themed speakeasy is located at the back of their Palm Springs specialty wine store Bouschet.
You need to make reservations and your dinner selections in advance. I recommend going as a group of four, as we did, otherwise you’ll be seated with total strangers, much like on an actual airline. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But you risk playing Russian roulette with your evening.
We checked in upon arrival & received our Boarding passes: 1A &1B – first class, first on board – score!
We proceeded to our boarding gate at the back of the store and lined up at the bottom of the sloped entrance into PS Air Bar.
Our boarding passes were checked and we were directed up the ramp and into the passenger cabin where we were greeted with glasses of champagne. Our hostess Diva led us to the first-class section where individual appetizer plates were waiting for us.
We settled into our roomy enfolding seats. Luxurious first class all the way. We stretched out our legs, and we took in the scene.
Sipping our champagne, we were transported back to a more glamorous era of air travel. No detail had been spared to give you the feeling of being in an actual cabin – the walls the fuselage of a Boeing 727, overhead compartments displaying retro luggage, vintage passenger seats with their seatbelts, and authentic airline beverage carts. Propeller ceiling fans and horizontal stabilizers made into tables continued the aeronautical theme.
The blue, muted lighting gave a dreamy, moody ambiance to the space. Felt like evening on an overnight flight.
Beverage service began as soon as we were seated – no waiting for the seatbelt sign to turn off at 20,000 feet before getting your liquid refreshment on PS Air! The drink menu had fun specialty offerings: Cockpit, Black Box, Warm Nuts, Turbulence, Mile High. I ordered the Layover, an icy blend of blueberry vodka, triple sec, lemon juice and blueberry syrup. Anything with lemon suits my fancy and paired with its best friend blueberry – mmmmm! Heaven in a glass with a airplane shaped ice cube. The bartenders were very liberal with the libations.
Husband, wasn’t tempted to order off the specialty menu, he stuck with his signature whiskey sour.
The meal was also served without delay, airline style.
Vegetarian options on airlines can be hit or miss, however, my pasta entree was delicious! A spicy and slightly sweet tomatoey sauce over crisp-tender veggies and pasta.
Husband praised the smoky flavor of the short ribs and the velvety texture of his whipped potatoes. Both meals were complimented with a green salad, roll and cookie. Both meals were definitely a step above actual airplane food.
We were enjoying our meal when our flight attendant/hostess – Diva, took to the microphone and asked everyone to kindly give our attention to some pre-flight announcements.
A word about the in-flight entertainment – they’re very naughty! We had no preconceived notions about PS Air Bar before we made our reservations, but once we got there, we just went with the flow. That’s the great thing about travel: the unexpected can be the best part of any trip!
Diva began with a very suggestive, yet hilarious oxygen mask instruction and seatbelt demonstration. Diva and another flight attendant followed that up with a dance with traffic wands as we ascended into the dinner show.
Then the music entertainment began. The singers on our flight were supremely talented and had us all seat-dancing and clapping as we enjoyed our meal. Diva kept us flying along with lively jokes in between tunes and by the time dinner was done, we were primed to begin dancing in the aisles.
Husband and I had just plopped back down in our seats after dancing a few songs when “Ladies Night” by Kool and the Gang filled the room. I looked around and nearly all of the ladies in the room spontaneously stepped out to dance. The two women in the aisle across from us were dancing near our seats, then they both pointed at me with both hands and motioned me over.
Husband leaned over and said, “I think someone here is being asked to dance and I don’t think it’s me.”
How could I resist? I got up and joined in. We were enthusiastically belting it out, “If you hear any noise, it ain’t the boys. It’s ladies night!” My friend had been in the ladies’ room and we grabbed her as she was walking back and pulled her into our dance circle.
You should definitely visit the lavatory in PS Air Bar. I won’t spoil it for you here.
We were dancing and singing in full swing when, Diva announced that our “flight” was making its final approach back to Palm Springs. We were descending in more ways than one.
Our group disembarked through the wine store and stepped out into the balmy Palm Springs evening air. This was the most enjoyable flight I’ve been on. No airsickness, no TSA lines or body searches, just a round trip flight to merriment.
Palm Springs is one of my happy places. My grandparents ran a small motel in the area and many of my childhood weekends were spent playing and swimming in the blistering basin below the rise of the Mt. San Jacinto mountains. I loved jumping into a cold pool on a searing summer day and air drying off in the sun without a towel. Cracking eggs on the sidewalk to see how long it would take for them to cook. (in the heat of Summer: 2 hours.) Sipping banana date shakes from Hadley’s on the way home from Grandma’s. I do consider other birthday options, but Palm Springs always draws me back.
Ladies Night came on the radio on the ride home. This song will forever remind me of that night of laughter and revelry. A quick check of my iTunes account showed that I did not have Ladies’ Night in my song library. I corrected that shameful omission as soon as we got home.
