For as long as trains served the Cleveland Union Terminal (1930-1972, excluding PC’s commuter), passengers could dine at the Fred Harvey English Oak Room, which in my mind remains the single best restaurant I’ve ever patronized. Panelled walls of oak from Sherwood Forest, floors of black and white marble (think Fred Harvey uniforms for women), a huge chandelier, oversized leather chairs and foot cushions, starched linen everywhere, delicious cuisine, and my first taste of lobster (tails).
Today’s rail passenger in Cleveland has “complete access to a fully functioning vending machine” (pace Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel).
The simplest solution is to return to cooking onboard the train and then charging appropriately to break even, you don’t have to turn a profit and you don’t have to lose money either. Instead of having commisaries(which are rather expensive), I’d contract with established food service providers, such as Sysco, US Foodservice, etc., etc., or even someone like Trader Joe’s.
Lucius Beebe would be disappointed. I wouldn’t call it fine dining nowadays, but you can get a satisfying meal. Amtrak’s chefs can’t serve you anything beyond what Management provides for them to serve, but for the most part they still take pride in their work and do a very creditable job, considering the limitations imposed upon them.
XOTower, I disagree with alot about what you wrote in regards to Amtrak’s food service. The reason the food service suffers isn’t from Amtrak, its from John Mica from Florida and other politicians who get their noses in Amtrak affairs. Attacks on the cost of food service has been an ongoing problem for decades. At one time Amtrak cooks went to culinary schools, china and silver were put on the tables instead of plastic utensils, and there were speciality items in the menu for almost all the long distance trains. Now with constant government interference and intensive pressure to reduce dining and lounge car costs…the results are there before you now. B******* about food service directly aimed at Amtrak doesn’t fly. Here is hoping that the new diners will bring back some civility to dining car service and the federal government allows the viewliner diners to bring back upgraded menu selections and service that travelers will accept.
To be honest, Beebe would be disappointed in any establishment that didn’t merit three stars in the Michelin Guide. For the rest of the world, Amtrak’s dining car service is a pleasant experience although it may be a bit pricey for coach passengers. Just keep your expectations realistic.
There are structural economic reasons for why Amtrak food service is not what it was in the Golden Era. Unless riders are willing to pay a premium for “fine dining” well above what the price would be in a good restaurant, that cannot happen.
[quote user=“NKP guy”]
Penn Central did have a commuter or local train tha ran east to East Cleveland-Willoghby-Mentor-Painsville-Erie PA. In addition there was a Cleveland-Hudson Ohio train that stops at Harvard/Broadway up untill 1962
bill613a
NKP guy
For as long as trains served the Cleveland Union Terminal (1930-1972, excluding PC’s commuter), passengers could dine at the Fred Harvey English Oak Room, which in my mind remains the single best restaurant I’ve ever patronized. Panelled walls of oak from Sherwood Forest, floors of black and white marble (think Fred Harvey uniforms for women), a huge chandelier, oversized leather chairs and foot cushions, starched linen everywhere, delicious cuisine, and my first taste of lobster (tails).
Today’s rail passenger in Cleveland has “complete access to a fully functioning vending machine” (pace Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel).
EL (later Conrail) commuter service ran into CUT, not PC.
You’re right, of course, but no one along that line ever referred to it or
Kansas City Union Station has an awesome restaurant setup with low train frequency. Excellent Steak place within the station and great lunch counter along with great food courts just a short walk using the connecting skywalk system. However it is no longer purely a Union Station, it is mostly a museum now and is close to other entertainment venues…hence the number of close restaurants.
Thanks, wanswheel, for a stunning image of the much-beloved-in-Cleveland Terminal Tower, as well as the exerpt about the opening of the Union Terminal in 1930 and its description of the English Oak Room.
For food sellers near a given station, may I suggest your Internet search engine of choice or sites like Yelp; the latter has many ‘10 Best Restaurants near …’ lists for many stations.
Looking at the Texas Eagle Menu, under the lunch section, I noticed a Chicken, Bacon & Cheddar Quesadilla being offered, It’s basically two Flat-top griddled torillas filled with melted cheddar, apple wood bacon and sliced chicken. You can order chunky tomato salsa if you want, but I wouldn’t, too spicy!
Quesadillas on an Amtrak train seem very unusual.[^o)] Did any of you ever order this meal?
So in Europe, are there rail lines with one train a day or 3 times a week with food sit down service at the station? Be kinda tough to make any money in that type enviroment. Comparing European station service to that provided in Canada & the US by VIA and Amtrak is not always apples to apples. [ip]
I don’t think there are any stations in Europe with that type of frequency. I was in the town of Ford in the U.K, not far from Brighton. I went as there is huge model train store just outside the station. It’s just a platform at a road crossing, a metal building housing the train store and a few others and not much else. No restaurant or pub was nearby. I was thinking that there can’t be much service here and it might be a long wait for a train back to London. I mean, I had just taken the train from Saratoga Springs to Penn two weeks before and there were only 2 trains a day. From Ford, there were trains every 15 minutes, some express, some local.
Whenever I ordered a Kosher-fish meal well in advance of my trip, I usually got it, and found the meal quite good. I think for Kosher meals Amtrak uses (or used?) Wilton Caterers, just like El Al does (or did?). Some of you might try a Kosher meal on a train where experience has shown the “on-board-cooked-food” has been less than satisfactory and see if the quality I observed has held up.
But I never found Amtrak food to be miserable. Penn Central’s stale cheese sandwiches were the only time I found food to be nearly inedible. I still remember my dissapointment the first time I tried the Detroit - Chicago “Twilight Limited” (not sure if it still had the name) after they removed the diner. Next trip was on the Grand Trunk Mowhawk. Were my expectations too low? I liked the food on the Mowhawk, on the GM&O Chicago-St. Louis Trains, First Class meals on Metroliners, and most Amtrak diners, last sampled in 1996.
But of course the Rio Grande Zephyr, the Crescent under the Southern, UP, IC Panama, Super Chief, AT&SF and UP in general, and ACL and Seaboard were really great.
Concerning the Oak Room at the Cleveland Union Terminal, on my return trips to Boston (CAmbridge offfice of Bolt Beranek and Newman) from places like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dayton, I would usually have coach from one of those cities to Cleveland and then roomette or slumbercoach to Boston. The usual hour layover in Clevland often allowed Walter Holtkamp (Senior) to come from the Organ factory and share a dinner with me in the Oak Room and get my latest thoughts on worhsip space acoustics and I obtaining his thought on organ design and space requirements etc. a productive meeting for both of us.
The food and ambience were terrific and these stopovers were one of the most pleasan parts of my business trips.
It seems if there was an option for a private company to set up shop aboard Amtrak trains, and turn a profit, the big restaurant chains would be all over it.
Government facilities are awash in various chain restaurants, so I don’t think Amtrak would be any different. It’s obvious there’s logistical obstacles that would make it unprofitable.
