Amtrak Diner and Food Service Discussion

If you return to your home base at the end of shift then it is "no travel"

My guess is the food is prepared in Charlotte, frozen and loaded on the train in both directions. It is then reheated or finished cooking on the train as needed. Thus there is no need for travel.

A report from Pennsylvanian 42(5):

Amtrak has replaced Dunkin’ Donuts “un-coffee” (seriously, it puts me to sleep) with Starbucks.

They did not replace the brewers nor tuned them to brew at a higher temperature that gives them that signature “burnt” taste. So it’s actually a decent dark roast!

Wow, Coffee that functions, as coffee, on a train.
it IS the future.

Sorry if this is a strange question, but are there no plans to return the dining car to the Crescent and other similar services?

Nothing strange about it. Only thing strange is that Amtrak can't figure out how to have appropriate dining types and capacity on trains that require multiple meals en route.

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:22 pm Wow, Coffee that functions, as coffee, on a train.
it IS the future.

Granted, I would of expected a blend similar to the PRR, NY Central, or the New Haven... but Starbucks using non-Starbucks equipment works. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't taste burnt.

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 12:27 pm

electricron wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 12:14 am Name the train where increasing food service hours actually increased profits? I ask because I can not find this experiment anywhere, so I need your help. Repeating an undocumented fact a hundred, thousand, million, or a billion times does not make it true.

Relax electricron . . . here you go:
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/in ... f-the-fun/

From the article:

This was accompanied by an onboard promotion of “When You’re Hungry, You’re Hungry” and promotional materials were placed in every coach seatback and sleeping car accommodation.

Does anyone have these materials, or seen them posted or for sale on one of the thousands of places on the web that railfan stuff like this is sold? If so can you post a link?

A complete new set of menus was created, all based on existing foods available through regular vendors.

Same question - has anyone ever seen these menus? If so can you post a pic?

The bottom line was, there was no downside to the 24-hour dining car.

It was so successful, does anyone know why they stopped doing it? Other than the usual ""They" are incompetent and/or want to sabotage dining cars and the LD trains!" conspiracy stuff please. If it was such a great success, there must have been a real reason.

From that author's other Railway Age article, https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/am ... annel=home :

One of the great hurrahs of Amtrak dining cars came in the late 1990s, when the transcontinental Sunset Limited diner featured 12 entrees on its dinner menu. Traditional white linen tablecloths draped the tables, along with china plates and stainless-steel cutlery. It was not unusual to have flowers on the table and lit candles at the dinner hour.

Same questions as above - does anyone have one of these menus with 12 entrees?

And . . . lit candles? Anyone have pics of that? Seems like that would be deemed a safety hazard in the Amtrak era.

I have checked the Amtrak Archives (https://history.amtrak.com/) but can't find anything (not that that would be definitive).

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/in ... f-the-fun/

Thanks for posting that article. I can only see 2 problems.'
1. getting enough personnell.
2. Getting enough equipment on the trains. The passnger demand even in off season would be much greater.

I have to wonder if the Chef's positions in CLT might be a variant of this past service.

Amtrak's new menu rated:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/t ... -cafe-car/

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 9:15 pm Amtrak's new menu rated:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/t ... -cafe-car/

Too many low scores, especially if you’re paying premium for sleeper.

John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 12:02 pm
Too many low scores, especially if you’re paying premium for sleeper.

Primarily for coach passengers I would guess but there must be some crossover. My wife actually loves the Angus Burger.

If anyone is travelling, I would be interested in how the food is since the new menu.
Thanks
Andy

Let me distill this mess of an article down then...

Um...

Okay... How can I express this best... Let me define some classes of convenience stores tied to gas stations.

• You got gas station fare. You may have self-serve hot-dogs, some coffee, a microwave for some items in the fridge or freezer case, and that's it... if you're lucky. (One gas station near me has a food truck)
• You got your standard store, aka your 7-Eleven. You got microwaves and ovens, so they can heat up a prepackaged pizza or some wings or even prepackaged hamburgers and breakfast items. You get a larger range of coffee, maybe a machine that makes specialized drinks, and there's always the ICEE/Slurpee machine.
• You have the mega store, which offers a full kitchen and coffee/espresso bar on top of the regular store. These are your Royal Farms, your Wawa's, your Sheetz. They'll make you a decent burger, or maybe offer good fried chicken, or maybe have something you never thought of.

So where does Amtrak's Cafe fit? You definitely don't have gas station food, and you definitely don't have mega store food. We have to compare it to 7-Eleven food...

...which is a problem, because 7-Eleven has gotten good. They have a decent pizza, decent hamburger, decent breakfast food, decent subs... granted I wouldn't want to eat there all the time but between McDonalds' hamburgers and 7-Eleven, I'd lean slightly more towards 7-Eleven.

With that, the article is essentially saying "It's getting close to 7-Eleven food, and in some cases better... but not by much."

I'd give it three weeks before I can find all the items in my local Costco or Sams Club.

Covid-19 has forced the restaurant industry and catering companies to re-think their service plans. There are many more "to-go" and wholesale options available from restaurants. Caterers have also evolved their offerings and operations to make food service safer and more efficient. There are plenty of opportunities for Amtrak to offer better food.

Every major city has numerous catering firms that will provide catering services ranging from elegant sit-down dinners, corporate lunches and events, or small private parties. It shouldn't be hard for Amtrak to find healthy and tasty food options for train passengers. Amtrak needs to set a price point and negotiate the contracts.

The challenge for Amtrak might be coordinating the catering on a nationwide basis. The sandwiches available along the NEC won't be the same that are available along the west coast. That might be a problem if Amtrak can't delegate responsibility for menu selections to regional managers. If Amtrak demands the same products in every market or makes the contracting process too difficult, caterers will tell Amtrak to take a hike and concentrate on catering the next local corporate event.

In the WaPo article, I saw labels from Creative Cuisine and Ken's Steakhouse. A web search leads to their homepages and their offerings.