Amtrak dining and cafe service

[OBS]

Aramark is a outsourced service provider operating Amtrak’s catering and commissary facilities. They aren’t really a food vendor. They are ordering food from other vendors. I believe some of the items at the metropolitan lounge are made by the same vendor that provides the flexible meals. Amtrak itself actually designs on board menus and selects what will be served. For on board Aramark is just in charge of operating the commissary - ordering the products, storing, and getting them to the train.

Not totally true. The Acela FC meals are prepared at Aramark airport flight kitchens in Bos, NYP, and Wash DC.

 

[JP1822]

It’s actually quite a complicated and intertwined service - Amtrak’s food preparation, sourcing, logistics, and even staffing. The staff handing or putting the food at at the Metro Lounges (NY and even Chicago) may have Amtrak uniforms on, but they are not paid directly by Amtrak - they are contracted out service. And yes, the food at Moynihan Lounge is better than what you can get on ANY Amtrak train right now at least - even Acela First Class. My opinion at least. However, there was a time when Acela First Class and even Metroliner First Class was far superior than any food service Amtrak had.

Next time you get a flex meal - look at the wrapper and you’ll see what distribution facility the meal is coming from.

Overall, a very complicated, and expensive food chain at present.….

 

[zephyr17]

Aramark is a outsourced service provider operating Amtrak’s catering and commissary facilities. They aren’t really a food vendor. They are ordering food from other vendors. I believe some of the items at the metropolitan lounge are made by the same vendor that provides the flexible meals. Amtrak itself actually designs on board menus and selects what will be served. For on board Aramark is just in charge of operating the commissary - ordering the products, storing, and getting them to the train.

Aramark is a giant food service and catering company with a nationwide presence. In addition to Amtrak, they are a dominant force in airline catering and also supplying and even operating employee cafeterias for companies across the country (including my last employer). As well as staffing the NYP Met Lounge.

Leveraging Aramark sources gains huge advantages in economics of scale. I seriously doubt Amtrak does not jointly design offerings with Aramark to best utilize Aramark's supply sources. If they don't Amtrak management is even dumber than I thought, which would be quite an accomplishment.

 

[lordsigma]

Not totally true. The Acela FC meals are prepared at Aramark airport flight kitchens in Bos, NYP, and Wash DC.

Yes - hence catering. Traditional dining also has some pre cooked items which Aramark would be preparing somewhere. But my point is they are a food SERVICE contractor as opposed to a food dealer they are buying the products (or raw ingredients for products they are preparing) from other places. For items they are precooking they’d be ordering the actual foodstuffs from a vendor like Sysco, Performance, or US Foods which supply most commercial kitchens. Aramark is about outsourcing logistics and preparation so you don’t have to pay your own people to do it. They’ll also do menu design and every aspect of your food service program if you want but Amtrak designs their own menus and decides what’s served I’m sure in concert with Aramark - Aramark does the grunt work - everything from ordering products/ingredients to delivery to the train. They’re basically a cafeteria kitchen/catering company for hire. Aramark also does facilities management. Sodexo is a similar company though is strictly food service. They both do a lot of hospitals, company cafeterias, college food service etc. the scope of what they do for any customer is of course contract specific.

 

[lordsigma]

Aramark is a giant food service and catering company with a nationwide presence. In addition to Amtrak, they are a dominant force in airline catering and also supplying and even operating employee cafeterias for companies across the country (including my last employer). As well as staffing the NYP Met Lounge.

Leveraging Aramark sources gains huge advantages in economics of scale. I seriously doubt Amtrak does not jointly design offerings with Aramark to best utilize Aramark's supply sources. If they don't Amtrak management is even dumber than I thought, which would be quite an accomplishment.

Well aware - I work at a college we used to use Sodexo for our food service which is a competitor of Aramark - for us they did absolutely everything from managers down to the rank and file workers. Buying power and supply chains as you suggested is the big advantage of outsourcing with these companies.

 

[PaulM]

I have made four (4) round trips on Amtrak between 9/2021 and 5/2023 in a sleeper. In all these trips I have yet to have a SCA who provides coffee at the coffee station. I've seen other SCAs set up their coffee stations on the same train. But for some reason, my SCA never does. That includes both the good SCAs and the bad ones. Have any of you had similar experiences? I'm beginning to take this personally!

I took the Silver Star and Lake Shore Limited back from Florida recently (early May 2023). On the SS in our sleeper there was no coffee (yes it was early); and in the other sleeper it was almost empty and cold. On the LSL both NY sleepers had no coffee (I wasn't about to go all the way to the front to check out the Boston Sleeper). I asked the SCA about this; and he said "they" don't bring coffee back anymore. A single attendant in the flex car was handling prep, service, and cleanup. So she was no help.

When I got back home, I spoke to customer relations, mainly to see if this was another policy change, or just rogue SCA's. She said there had been no policy change. When I told her I was going to submit an invoice for my quality control services, she offered a $100 voucher.

I do have to say that I liked the restored food and service on the SS very much. I told the chef that I thought she was ready for the California Zephyr. I don't know if that was considered a compliment or a put down.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Aramark is a giant food service and catering company with a nationwide presence. In addition to Amtrak, they are a dominant force in airline catering and also supplying and even operating employee cafeterias for companies across the country (including my last employer). As well as staffing the NYP Met Lounge.

I'm not a fan of US airline catering but having access to an Aramark kitchen at work was a nice benefit. They were fast, friendly, and happy to honor special requests. I don't want to see good people lose good jobs but I would be curious to see how Aramark would handle the on-board dining service if Amtrak were willing and able to give them one of the LD routes.

 

[zephyr17]

I'm not a fan of US airline catering but having access to an Aramark kitchen at work was a nice benefit. They were fast, friendly, and happy to honor special requests. I don't want to see good people lose good jobs but I would be curious to see how Aramark would handle the on-board dining service if Amtrak were willing and able to give them one of the LD routes.

Well based on how they handled the cafeteria at my place of employment, I'd think they'd be pretty good. For one thing, Aramark kept on a lot of the staff when they took over from the previous vendor. I don't know the criteria Aramark used or what they offered, but the folks I thought of as the good ones stayed. The quality and especially the variety of the food improved while keeping the "specialties" that some of the folks they kept on made. Aramark was all to the good and the cafeteria hadn't been bad before.

I think the service staff at Moynihan's Met Lounge is very customer oriented and 200% better than most Amtrak food service employees (at least the ones in the east. The ones on the Cascades out of Seattle are generally pretty good).

I'd be more than happy to see an experiment in outsourcing completely to Aramark. The current hybrid system has some flaws in onboard inventory management and ordering anyway. Running out of a popular entree after the first sitting of the first dinner service on a 5 or 6 day round trip? Outsourcing with customer satisfaction as a major metric seems to be something Aramark is good at and I doubt Aramark would let something that would adversely impact scores to happen routinely.

 

[dlagrua]

Will be taking a trip soon. Does anyone here know where I can get a list of ingredients on the Flex meals, I suffer from severe food allergies to some ingredients like garkic and especially additives like Sodium Nitrite and MSG.

 

[railiner]

Even Amtrak had them in some locations. When I worked at Denver in the ‘80’s, they opened up a “mini-commissary”, up to FDA food storage standards, including refrigeration and ice making capabilities. Station services employees received appropriate training in safe food handling practice.
In addition, a local restaurant supplier, brought daily perishables.

 

[lordsigma]

I’ve heard of a couple colleges that brought in Aramark or Sodexo where they employ the management staff while the rank and file staff remain union employees of the institution but supervised by managers from the contractor. At my particular college everyone including rank and file worked for Sodexo. Eventually we terminated their contract and took it over in house.

 

[MarkInAustin]

Probably. It's not a very appealing space, but there's a reasonable selection of fast food places.
View attachment 32533

I completely agree with Bob Dylan about food outside the station with this caveat:
Winter in Chicago is long and miserable [for Texans, anyway]. So from November through March, stay in the station. My wife and I think Jersey Mike's is the best option, and we buy sandwiches to go there as well.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Will be taking a trip soon. Does anyone here know where I can get a list of ingredients on the Flex meals, I suffer from severe food allergies to some ingredients like garkic and especially additives like Sodium Nitrite and MSG.

There's not alot you can say about the ingredients in the Flex Meals, except they're Sodium and Sugar Bombs that you shouldn't eat considering your allergies.

One of our Moderators ( pennyk) has Garlic allergies also, you might want to PM her to discuss how she handles food on her Train trips!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Will be taking a trip soon. Does anyone here know where I can get a list of ingredients on the Flex meals, I suffer from severe food allergies to some ingredients like garkic and especially additives like Sodium Nitrite and MSG.

Are you doing a one-night trip or long day trip and starting and ending in a city with lots of food choices? (Like Philly to Chicago, for example?)

If so, do you already have some favorite allergy-free menu items from places there that list their ingredients and could you pick up something to take on the train and then get something from a similar place when you arrive at your destination?

I don’t have any food allergies and have pretty much a cast-iron stomach, but after a day of train food, even I feel slightly uncomfortable after all that salt and sugar and fat.

 

[trimetbusfan]

Looks like there is new Acela FC offerings.

The New STARR of Our First Class Menu | Amtrak

Amtrak is proud to partner with visionary restaurateur Stephen Starr — bringing onboard his renowned, delectable cuisine made from simple, fresh ingredients.

www.amtrak.com

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/menus/routes/Acela-First-Class-Menus-0523.pdf

 

[dlagrua]

Are you doing a one-night trip or long day trip and starting and ending in a city with lots of food choices? (Like Philly to Chicago, for example?)

If so, do you already have some favorite allergy-free menu items from places there that list their ingredients and could you pick up something to take on the train and then get something from a similar place when you arrive at your destination?

I don’t have any food allergies and have pretty much a cast-iron stomach, but after a day of train food, even I feel slightly uncomfortable after all that salt and sugar and fat.

Its on the first leg of our trip PHL-WAS-CHI-WLO. We will try to eat something more chemical free and lower in fat before boarding but AFAIK many of the food places at WAS today are not so hot. There used to be a few good places pre-pandemic but I have no idea what the situation is now. I can eat many different ethnic and domestic foods but if they contain Garlic, Sulfites, Nitrites and MSD its a problem. The LD train menu seems OK but the pre-packaged Flex meals are probably laced with chemicals. Did you know that sodium nitrite used in bacon and some prepared meats is classified as a poison by the FDA? How healthy is that?

 

[joelkfla]

Its on the first leg of our trip PHL-WAS-CHI-WLO. We will try to eat something more chemical free and lower in fat before boarding but AFAIK many of the food places at WAS today are not so hot. There used to be a few good places pre-pandemic but I have no idea what the situation is now. I can eat many different ethnic and domestic foods but if they contain Garlic, Sulfites, Nitrites and MSD its a problem. The LD train menu seems OK but the pre-packaged Flex meals are probably laced with chemicals. Did you know that sodium nitrite used in bacon and some prepared meats is classified as a poison by the FDA? How healthy is that?

There's a CHOPT at WUS. They have an allergy guide on their website that includes garlic. No mention of MSG or nitrites, though.

 

[Tlcooper93]

Looks like there is new Acela FC offerings.

The New STARR of Our First Class Menu | Amtrak

Amtrak is proud to partner with visionary restaurateur Stephen Starr — bringing onboard his renowned, delectable cuisine made from simple, fresh ingredients.

www.amtrak.com

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/menus/routes/Acela-First-Class-Menus-0523.pdf

These don’t look half bad, but with all things Amtrak, I’ll wait and see.

Not the healthiest of options, but for the Acela, it really doesn’t matter the same way it does for LD trains.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Its on the first leg of our trip PHL-WAS-CHI-WLO. We will try to eat something more chemical free and lower in fat before boarding but AFAIK many of the food places at WAS today are not so hot. There used to be a few good places pre-pandemic but I have no idea what the situation is now. I can eat many different ethnic and domestic foods but if they contain Garlic, Sulfites, Nitrites and MSD its a problem. The LD train menu seems OK but the pre-packaged Flex meals are probably laced with chemicals. Did you know that sodium nitrite used in bacon and some prepared meats is classified as a poison by the FDA? How healthy is that?

I was thinking of something like a Panera or Pret a Manger, assuming they might have ingredient lists — I know there is a Pret at PHL but don’t know about WAS. The CHOPT suggestion above sounds good.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I completely agree with Bob Dylan about food outside the station with this caveat: WINTER IN CHICAGO IS LONG AND MISERABLE [for Texans, anyway]. So from November through March, stay in the station. My wife and I think Jersey Mike's is the best option, and we buy sandwiches to go there as well.

I've only experienced full-on winter in Chicago once. Felt like tiny shards of glass blowing against my face. Amazing city in shoulder seasons though.

 

[TEREB]

Can someone remind me what the food and drink are like in the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago Union Station? The hubby and I should have about 2 hours (if the northbound Lincoln Service train is on time) there before we board the California Zephyr at the end of September, and I wonder if the snacks & drinks there would make an adequate lunch before we board the CZ.

These are from out October 2022 visit. Sorry, I misread your question. These photos are from the Moynihan lounge.

 

[MccfamschoolMom]

Also for breakfast, the closest of them all Lou Mitchell’s. Think they are closed Monday and Tuesday

We'd be boarding the CZ on a Saturday, so closure wouldn't be an issue. (Finishing a meal quickly and returning to the station in time to board the California Zephyr might be an issue, though, especially if the Lincoln Service train is late arriving in Chicago.)

These are from out October 2022 visit. Sorry, I misread your question. These photos are from the Moynihan lounge.

Those goodies look delicious! The hubby saw the pictures too, and was amazed to hear that those snacks in the Metropolitan Lounge were no extra charge, since we'd be sleeping car passengers. I know he'd certainly like to try one of those craft sodas in the first picture!

 

[lordsigma]

Its on the first leg of our trip PHL-WAS-CHI-WLO. We will try to eat something more chemical free and lower in fat before boarding but AFAIK many of the food places at WAS today are not so hot. There used to be a few good places pre-pandemic but I have no idea what the situation is now. I can eat many different ethnic and domestic foods but if they contain Garlic, Sulfites, Nitrites and MSD its a problem. The LD train menu seems OK but the pre-packaged Flex meals are probably laced with chemicals. Did you know that sodium nitrite used in bacon and some prepared meats is classified as a poison by the FDA? How healthy is that?

If you have time Go to the Dubliner - right across from Amtrak HQ short walk from union station.

 

[pennyk]

There's not alot you can say about the ingredients in the Flex Meals, except they're Sodium and Sugar Bombs that you shouldn't eat considering your allergies.

One of our Moderators ( pennyk) has Garlic allergies also, you might want to PM her to discuss how she handles food on her Train trips!

BTW, I found it impossible to get a list of ingredients on flex meals, but I was informed by CR (by jumping through many hoops) that every flex meal entree contains garlic. In years past, I was able to get a "special" meal (generally a salad) but lately, I have to hope that the LSA will allow me to get a cheese tray or something similar from the cafe. On my recent trips to and from ALX and Tampa on the Silver Star, I was pleased to be able to get traditional dining. I got the salmon entree with no sauce and I was fine.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

AFAIK many of the food places at WAS today are not so hot. There used to be a few good places pre-pandemic but I have no idea what the situation is now.

Upstairs there is a Shake Shack, Chipotle, Chopt, and then a couple of Mediterranean style places. I just ate at Cava 2 days ago and it was good.

Also there is Blue Bottle Coffee if you are a fan of good coffee - I just rode the MARC Camden line 1 - to get new mileage and 2 to get more Blue Bottle Coffee. Maybe not in that order!