CONO - dinner out of Chicago?

[MyJourneys]

I was browsing topics and thought I read something about no dinner on the City of New Orleans train out of Chicago?

Did I misunderstand, or do they no longer serve dinner to sleeper passengers boarding in Chicago?

 

[Bob Dylan]

I was browsing topics and thought I read something about no dinner on the City of New Orleans train out of Chicago?

Did I misunderstand, or do they no longer serve dinner to sleeper passengers boarding in Chicago?

There is a Diner of sorts,( CCC) but the Chef has been eliminated, so the Limited Menu is Heat and Heat like on the Cardinal with a Convection oven doing the "cooking"!

 

[MyJourneys]

Thanks, Bob - so they do serve dinner the night we leave Chicago?

 

[the_traveler]

Yes, they do. I was on the CONO a few months back.

 

[MyJourneys]

Thank you!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Serve dinner? Yes. Cook dinner? No.

 

[Palmland]

We had a great dinner in downtown Chicago then enjoyed a glass of wine in the darkened SSL watching the city lights as we did the see saw move out of the city. A very mediocre dinner on the CONO at 8PM just wasn't worth it for us. I wish Amtrak would just skip it and have a really good breakfast. While the continental offering was ok, freshly fried eggs and bacon would have been more enjoyable.

Or, why not just have a chef work between Memphis and New Orleans? Even charge a premium for it to cover the cost and have a really good meal (think eggs Benedict southbound and one of the many great cajun meals for dinner northbound, Po' boys for lunch). I believe the crew we had was New Orleans based and was excellent.

 

[George K]

Here's the CONO menu: https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/148/959/City-of-New-Orleans-Dining-Car-Menu-0715.pdf

 

[rosewood]

We had dinner last month at about 8:30 or so.A refurbished dining car with nice lamps on the tables, plenty of space to sit at the booths and lovely long meal ordered, served and prepared by one very nice chef . He told us he was the trial for the new program and he was exhausted having to do everything . He was great and the 15-20 of us were very patient . Really one of our best dining experiences of our 9 day long distance trip.

 

[keelhauled]

We had dinner last month at about 8:30 or so.A refurbished dining car with nice lamps on the tables, plenty of space to sit at the booths and lovely long meal ordered, served and prepared by one very nice chef . He told us he was the trial for the new program and he was exhausted having to do everything . He was great and the 15-20 of us were very patient . Really one of our best dining experiences of our 9 day long distance trip.

Unacceptable! The community has come to the conclusion that when dining on Amtrak, one must be miserable and disappointed at all times. No exceptions. It is also considered in good form to complain at great length after the fact that things were better in The Good Old Days.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

He told us he was the trial for the new program and he was exhausted having to do everything.

Unacceptable! The community has come to the conclusion that when dining on Amtrak, one must be miserable and disappointed at all times.

Does the "chef" being miserable count?

 

[CoachSlumber]

We had dinner last month at about 8:30 or so.A refurbished dining car with nice lamps on the tables, plenty of space to sit at the booths and lovely long meal ordered, served and prepared by one very nice chef . He told us he was the trial for the new program and he was exhausted having to do everything . He was great and the 15-20 of us were very patient . Really one of our best dining experiences of our 9 day long distance trip.

Unacceptable! The community has come to the conclusion that when dining on Amtrak, one must be miserable and disappointed at all times. No exceptions. It is also considered in good form to complain at great length after the fact that things were better in The Good Old Days.

I get your sarcastic point, but it is somewhat depressing to witness the lone attendant raggedly trying to be maitre d', cook, waiter, and busboy in one session. By lunch the next day, he is a sad sight.

 

[the_traveler]

why not just have a chef work between Memphis and New Orleans? Even charge a premium for it to cover the cost and have a really good meal (think eggs Benedict southbound and one of the many great cajun meals for dinner northbound, Po' boys for lunch).

I think that is an excellent idea! After all, that did turn the dining crew on the TE at AUS for years, and maybe just have a boxed breakfast (ala SPK-PDX) northbound for sleeping car passengers.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

why not just have a chef work between Memphis and New Orleans? Even charge a premium for it to cover the cost and have a really good meal (think eggs Benedict southbound and one of the many great cajun meals for dinner northbound, Po' boys for lunch).

I think that is an excellent idea! After all, that did turn the dining crew on the TE at AUS for years, and maybe just have a boxed breakfast (ala SPK-PDX) northbound for sleeping car passengers.

Dave is right, we're talking about Amtrak here so scale it down a bit.




Amtrak's new boxed breakfast...

 

[crescent-zephyr]

why not just have a chef work between Memphis and New Orleans? Even charge a premium for it to cover the cost and have a really good meal (think eggs Benedict southbound and one of the many great cajun meals for dinner northbound, Po' boys for lunch).

I think that is an excellent idea! After all, that did turn the dining crew on the TE at AUS for years, and maybe just have a boxed breakfast (ala SPK-PDX) northbound for sleeping car passengers.

Traveler, anytime anyone suggests boxed meals, experts on this forum claim it can't be done because of scheduling etc. Even though the Empire Builder does it every single day and it seems to work.
I preferred the boxed dinner on the Empire Builder over the new dinner menu on the City.

To be fair... I prefer the new breakfast offering on the City, over the boxed breakfast on the Builder, it left a little to be desired. Ha.