Would they have the proper mixes? Or howabout a Tom Collins? I am going to need some X-mass cheer coming out of Toledo OH.
Used to have these for Breakfast in the late 1980s on Amtraks Lakeshore Lmt.
Absolutely, if they haven’t run out of ".
[Y]
The cafe on the lower level of the Sightseer Lounge of the Southwest Chief did back on Sept. 28 and Sept. 30, 2019. Can’t say about after that.
- PDN.
I’ve stumped several non Amtrak bartenders asking for a vodka martini.
The wife and I used to like to hit the dining car at 6:30AM when it opened, have breakfast, ask the dining attendant for a couple cups of ice and return to our seats. In our carry-on grip we pack a pint of vodka and a couple cans of V-8 juice. We make our own bloody mary drinks. it just feels so decadent having them at 8AM. Now that the dining car is restricted to sleepres, and I cannot afford sleepers anymore…sigh.
On an earlier trip I went to the club car and they were out of tomato juice, so I got orange juice instead. Either way they had minis of vodka to go with. Oddly, when I asked the cafe attendant for tomato juice and was told he was out of it, I said I would then make a screwdriver. He had never heard of a screwdriver. After that, we just brought our own.
By the way, I prefer V-8 to straight tomato, and at that we prefer the “spicy hot” V-8. (For non-usa readers, V-8 is a brand of tomato juice with other vegetable juices added)
Did he actually mix the drink or did he hand you the mini-bottles of liquor? I was under the impression there were no longer any bartenders on Amtrak trains. It would be great if the snack bar attendent knew how to mix drinks.
I still remember back when the bartender was stationed on the second level in the Sight-Seer lounge…which btw, Amtrak has started to bastardize. The Texas Eagle Sight-Seer lounge was half tables on the upper level (horrible). Can’t imagine that clients want that when half the dining car rides empty configured that way already. Though they might be prepping for the day of boxed lunches for coach passengers in the Sight-Seer Lounge. The lower level is usually empty and there are tables down there already. Can’t figure out why they are doing this with the rebuilds. Just seems stupid.
Was telling some of the new to Amtrak passengers on my trip that the original design of the Superliner Economy Bedroom (which most had), was Channel 1 was for turning on outside intercom announcements (this still works) Channel 0 was to turn the system off, channels 2 and above were intended for piped in music (wonder if the wiring is still in place for that). The Sleeping Car compartments were supposed to come with some form of entertainment but Amtrak long ago dropped the ball with it.
As to tables in the Sightseer Lounges, they are found on the California Zephyr, the Empire Builder, and Coast Starlight, and were on the Capitol Limited. It seems to me that that wasthe standard arrangement for these cars.
The Sightseer lounge car attendants are not bar keeps. They are not expected to know how to mix drinks.
Amtrak used to play movies in the Sightseer Lounge car, but they gave it up because so many passengers today have a tablet or smart phone that enables them to watch what they want to see. I suspect the same applies for music, which probably is the reason the company has not kept up the system to pipe it into each room.
A lot has changed since the Superliner equipment went into service. At the time iPads and iPods were a thing of the future, I believe.
I have to confess that I see little point to making a lounge-car attendant a ‘mixologist’ for a standard Bloody, where the supplies are all going to be canned or individually midget-bottled. They are not going to have a bottle of Worcestershire at hand to add to canned tomato juice cocktail, nor are they likely to start running a ‘split’ of a miniature bottle to adjust the amount of alcohol going into a given drink. I in fact would much prefer having a can of the mixed stuff (ideally actual “Bloody Mary Mix”) with the spices and Worcestershire mixed in) and an individual bottle of vodka to being given a mixed ‘cup-size’ drink, as I can transport them without messy spillage to where I want, and then mix refills, too – and get out my own Worcestershire if I want it instead of carrying the bottle in my inside jacket pocket as if going to football games.
Some airlines (I don’t remember which, or when) carried canned “Bloody Mary Mix” instead of just tomato juice and V8. They would serve this to coach passengers on request just like any other canned drink they carried on the cart. It certainly wouldn’t involve much trouble for Amtrak to do the same. By extension, there’s now a much more developed market for canned cocktails and ‘mocktails’ of various kinds, which require little if any mixological skill to deploy for customers. (Yes, there should be some way for ticket-holders to communicate their expected cocktail ‘wants’ in advance so the commissary knows how many to stock … but that’s a different discussion.)
The problem with individual entertainment in sleepers is that so damn much money and trouble needs to be made to provide it in the first place, and the general quality of the equipment so provided is so primitive. In the 1940s it was luxury to have piped-in radio to the pillow speaker C&O provided you. Nowadays even cheap stick MP3 players, or any smartphone or other de
There’s still something romantic about a lounge car with a bar staffed by a bartender who would make drinks to order.
It’s not quite the same to get a can of mix and a small bottle to mix yourself at your seat.
Remember the issues involved with trains (and planes) crossing certain sections of “dry” counties? It seems silly today, but it was taken seriously back then.
Scrupulously adhered to by the B&O Dining Car Stewards with West Virginia being dry for a time. Last call for alcohol approaching Harpers Ferry Westbound and Cumberland Eastbound. All alcohol was dispensed in ‘minitures’ by the Steward in accordance with orders written by the customer on the waiters order sheet.
And, Pullman employees in lounge cars also followed strict instructions-even instructions for pouring beer into glasses.
This is without question – as is getting a drink that cannot be provided in a can, or made using materials in ‘portion-controlled packaging’.
What is in question, though, is assuming the funds are in the Amtrak budget to provide both the mixin’s and the mixologist as amenities. I think they are not, and I further suspect that the political will to provide a more detailed alcohol service, as with many other ‘non-transportation-related’ amenities, may be relatively lacking.
On the other hand, if enough of the riding public is willing to pay a premium for the amenity and the experience, and if there is even a small ‘net profit’ from the mixed drinks … well, every little bit helps toward making Amtrak both net-profitable and attractive to more potential passengers.
In 1972, officials boarded the Amtrak train in Kansas City. When it stopped in Newton, Kansas, another official boarded the train, and agents arrested the conductor, the lounge car attendant, and the dining car waiter. They were charged with violating the alcohol laws in Kansas. The agents also confiscated all the alcohol on board the train.
I think the Supreme Court ruled that states had the right to make their own laws concerning alcohol.
I agree completely. My comment was made after watching some TCM movies with people riding trains in the 1940s.
Of course, the movies don’t portray anything that does not look “romantic”.
Was the Union Pacific the ony railroad with full bottles used in the bars? All the other trains I rode on used the single service bottles.
There was never any particular question about states having the right to make, and to enforce, their own laws – whether under cover of a ‘religious’ based excuse or not. There was also no question that the laws applied to ground transportation within the particular states.
The question was whether ‘interstate commerce’ was affected by the states’ enforcing their liquor law on interstate trains passing through ‘dry’ areas. And the idea of locking up sales of alcohol during passage through ‘dry’ or otherwise restricted areas was, as Balt’s father noted, well and truly established from Repeal onward.
I think the reason the Supreme Court decision that overturned train-length legislation did not apply to beverage alcohol is the same reason it did not apply to full-crew laws: it does not affect safety, and there is no compelling restraint of interstate traffic involved in denying the sale of alcohol for some part of a train’s run.
Congress could have, as part of the official repeal of Prohibition, established a “right” to consume alcohol in interstate commerce. (It would be interesting to see how subsequent elections for Congresscritters in dry areas would have gone.) Only on such a basis, and only if subsequently confirmed as Constitutional by a majority of the Court, could restrictions on alcohol served in dry areas be ‘overridden’ by Federal power.
Must be - having frequented the diners on B&O, IC, L&N, SAL, ACL and PRR - all liquor was dispensed in miniatures on those roads.