"Chipotle-style quick-service station" dining car?

[Manny T]

^ If you're not meeting war babies, boomers, or Gen X, Y or Z's, then the only people you would be meeting are the Great Gatsby generation, Flappers, and earlier.

I'm glad they're so nice, I'm just surprised they are still living. Probably not using cell phones much.

 

[fillyjonk]

^ If you're not meeting war babies, boomers, or Gen X, Y or Z's, then the only people you would be meeting are the Great Gatsby generation, Flappers, and earlier.

I'm glad they're so nice, I'm just surprised they are still living. Probably not using cell phones much.

And if they do, they probably answer it by saying "A-hoy-hoy!"

(Am now picturing C. Mongomery Burns - from The Simpsons - riding Amtrak).

Back on topic: I PREFER people to talk to while I eat and will admit I'm slightly sad when someone wants to just look at their cell phone, but I also realize I'm not fascinating enough to compete with the whole entire internet and if someone would rather text to the "people who live in their phone," fine, whatever. I'll just look out the window instead or maybe talk to the people at the NEXT table if they want to talk.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Obviously millenials are awful. They way you talk they turn them out in some factory in China or something. Like all generations, the bulk of them are ok people and some of them are inconsiderate jerks. It's not a generational thing at all.

 

[A Voice]

And frankly, if the Millennials are so terrible, what about the people who raised them (*cough boomers) and should have taught them these all these things which they supposedly lack?

It was literally a different world for mobile electronic devices not that many years ago. The parents of Millenmials thought of a mobile phone as something you carried for emergencies or that you used when you were away from a 'landline" phone. There was simply no thought given or need to teach manners and courtesy explicitly for the "phone"; People never envisioned modern mobile devices, or generations who are constantly connected. Nobody would sit in a dining car staring at a "phone", hoping it would ring or something.

That said, there is ample evidence of deficient manners, courtesy, and even common sense taught by parents to current generations. That problem stems from decades ago, it's nothing new (tied up in somewhat related social issues, such as lack of a definitive moral standard). So, while nobody really saw a need to directly teach their children you don't bring your phone to the dinner table/dining car (which should be obvious), it is indeed part of poor manners overall.

 

[PRR 60]

The issue is that what is called a "phone" is much, much more than a phone. It's a camera. It's a GPS device. It's a train tracker. It's a weather forecaster. It's a sports scoreboard. It's a means of non-oral communications. It's a whole lot of things wrapped up in a small package. I bring it to the diner because I want it's capability during the time I'm in the diner. If we are passing a small town, maybe I want to know the name of the town. If there's a stream or mountain or meadow, maybe I want to take a photo. Maybe I want to know how fast we're going, or when we'll meet our companion train heading the other way. Maybe I want my wife to see a photo of the dinner I ordered (or maybe not). Maybe I even want to take a photo of the people I'm sharing dinner with (which with their enthusiastic permission, I actually did last summer, and the favor was returned for them).

As for social interaction, it's not an either/or thing. I can take a photo, text my wife, check GPS, and talk. In fact, the info I get from the phone sometimes breaks the ice with table mates. Imagine seeing that Packers-Cowboys score pop up and finding you're seated with fans. Instant conversation.

You can go into a roadside diner or a fine restaurant, and you will see people using their devices at the dinner table. This is not the 1950's or even the 1990's anymore. Like wearing jeans to the theater in New York (very common), it is what it is, and I'm fine with it.

 

[jis]

I have found that a great conversation starter often is where are we and how fast are we going, information from a smartphone.

I don't understand why the fogies around here believe that the social mores of their youth must be followed by everyone. Afterall their generation broke almost every existing social mores of their parents youth. Hence I don't take their protestations too seriously.

 

[VentureForth]

Waffle House crew and a 24-hour diner.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Waffle House crew and a 24-hour diner.

I've often thought that a Waffle House manages to serve a pretty decent size menu with a small kitchen space and limited staff.

They also use real plates... But not table cloths. Ha.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The issue is that what is called a "phone" is much, much more than a phone. It's a camera. It's a GPS device. It's a train tracker. It's a weather forecaster. It's a sports scoreboard. It's a means of non-oral communications. It's a whole lot of things wrapped up in a small package.

Yeah, I don't think smart devices are the root cause of social miscues and confusion. These devices can be used inclusively just as easily as they can be used exclusively. However, I've noticed that even when they're used as supplements to other activities conversations seem to stutter and lose their flow when the device is being polled for the next topic or update.

I don't understand why the fogies around here believe that the social mores of their youth must be followed by everyone. Afterall their generation broke almost every existing social mores of their parents youth. Hence I don't take their protestations too seriously.

Good thing we don't take your straw man fabrications any more seriously than you take our protests. :lol:

 

[jis]

Oh I did not expect you to either Actually not knowing the context and instead of going off half cocked trying to be clever gets in your way

More seriously, just because Amtrak wants one to sit with some random collection of people does not imply one must strike up a conversation with them. Sometimes a conversation is fun and sometimes doing something else is more productive. Each to his or her own. Most people are no dazzling conversationalists anyway though many do suffer from such delusions.

I have observed conversations generally go well when people who have spoken with each other before manage to share a table. Otherwise it may work out or it may not, and if not c'est la vie. Some habitually don't like to talk much, and I don't see why they must change their nature suddenly.

 

[SarahZ]

I would have been ecstatic if the couple who positively badgered us about marriage, kids, and our political views had kept their noses in their phones. We tried, multiple times, to steer the conversation elsewhere, but they insisted on getting personal.

Despite how angry we were, we kept our tones polite and ate our dinner as quickly as we could. Unlike them, we were raised with proper dinner manners and know better than to inquire about the status of someone's relationship, their reproductive organs, and their health care.

"Rude" is not a generational thing.

 

[Ryan]

I don't understand why the fogies around here believe that the social mores of their youth must be followed by everyone. Afterall their generation broke almost every existing social mores of their parents youth. Hence I don't take their protestations too seriously.

Good thing we don't take your straw man fabrications any more seriously than you take our protests. :lol:

I'm pretty sure Jim was cheerleading a made up rule of no electronics that applied to everyone in the dining car, so that's not really a strawman.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Ryan: You are correct Sir, it is a made up rule by the OBS!

Personally I feel no need to get an electronic fix while eating or involved in interaction with others but as we say, YMMV!

 

[VentureForth]

Mine becomes a conversation piece. Yes, sometimes I get geeked out, but I try to keep it close to the window, and track the speed and location (hard because cell phone GPSs still don't penetrate the glazing very well).

Folks find it fascinating when we're dining at 79 MPH.

 

[fairviewroad]

Interesting that Amtrak's blog post used the phrase "Chipotle-style" as a reference point. Did Chipotle pay for the product-placement? If not, I have to wonder why Amtrak would use for its example a restaurant that is widely known for a recent E-Coli outbreak that briefly shut the entire chain down.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Interesting that Amtrak's blog post used the phrase "Chipotle-style" as a reference point. Did Chipotle pay for the product-placement? If not, I have to wonder why Amtrak would use for its example a restaurant that is widely known for a recent E-Coli outbreak that briefly shut the entire chain down.

Chipotle is pretty much the most successful "fast casual" type place and is still quite popular. I think it is an odd choice for a train model... I think a Panera bread type menu and model (order food, get drinks and snacks at the counter, prepared food brought to your table) would work much better in an Amtrak environment.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Oh,good grief, what did I start? :unsure:

I want to clarify--I don't mind phones if they are being used for train-tracking or other train-related activities and that info is shared with the other dining companions. That can actually be fun. It's the complete addicted fixation on them and lack of any social skills (like perhaps saying "hello" before staring at the phone) that bothers me. (By the way, not all of us boomers were drugged out weirdos in awful clothes, so I agree, it is not good to generalize--I know many polite and intelligent millenials, some here on AU! )

I'm willing to compromise: phones at the table, but only if we get served Panera food.

(Seriously, I just had lunch with a friend at a nearby Panera, and the system works extremely well, even during business lunch hour, so I think it could work well on a train, as crescent-zephr suggests.)

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Interesting that Amtrak's blog post used the phrase "Chipotle-style" as a reference point. Did Chipotle pay for the product-placement? If not, I have to wonder why Amtrak would use for its example a restaurant that is widely known for a recent E-Coli outbreak that briefly shut the entire chain down.

Chipotle is pretty much the most successful "fast casual" type place and is still quite popular. I think it is an odd choice for a train model... I think a Panera bread type menu and model (order food, get drinks and snacks at the counter, prepared food brought to your table) would work much better in an Amtrak environment.

Amtrak doesn't have to worry about e-coli outbreaks because most of their menu isn't raw enough to cause any problems in the first place. They serve eggs which could have salmonella but insist on serving them hard scrambled. Their steak goes from frozen to cooked with no other preparation so not much risk there either. I can only imagine slow and easily confused Amtrak dining staff trying to run a fast paced freshly prepared casual food experience. It might be a complete disaster but easily worth the cost of a ticket just to find out.

 

[PVD]

not uncommon in ground beef, (like frozen hamburger patties) achieving an internal temperature of 160 degrees is required (why fast food chains make it hard to get anything not fully cooked through)

 

[crescent-zephyr]

But Amtrak burgers are fully cooked, and frozen before they ever get to the train.

 

[tommylicious]

amtrak wasting time and money on this...imagine a giant pan of questionable ground beef sloshing around

 

[ABQFloridian]

So, I'm going to try and avoid getting embroiled in the fight over just how rude my generation is. Perhaps all the boomers on this site were clean-cut Goldwater types, but I would bet that, on the whole, your grandparents thought your generation was just as rude as you think we are. I mean, come on. If manners never changed, we'd all be wearing top hats and hoop skirts and filling out dance cards or something.

Anyway, what I really want to discuss is this claim from the blog postupon which this thread is based:

"Other favorites, though, change along routes as passengers seek out more regional fareguests can enjoy red beans and rice on the Sunset Limited, for example, and barbecue pork sandwiches on the Texas Eagle route."

Can anyone confirm this? It's been a while since I took the TE/SSL,so my only reference is the menus on amtrak.com and amtrakfoodfacts.com, both of which show these trains as being on the regular national menu. Have they recently reintroduced regional options to the dining cars, or is this just a blatant marketing lie?

 

[Bob Dylan]

You answered your own question ABQ.

National Menus are in effect on LD Trains and as is usually the case, Amtrak is wofefully behind on the Marketing blurbs, it's been several years since the Q and the Red Beans and, Rice were served in the Diner on the Eagle and the CONO! ( and the CONO doesn't even have a Chef, the CCC has a heat and eat operation similar to the Diner Lite on the Cardinal! )

 

[dlagrua]

I remember reading in one of the history books on passenger rail, that back in the 1950's there were lunch cars that offered counter service and ones that offered buffet style lunches. The counter lunch service may have lasted but the buffet probably did not. I believe the book was called "Dining by Rail". One thing that we can say for sure is that prices are sky high and that food service on Amtrak trains is at an all time low. If it keeps going like this, why before you know it, they will be serving Banquet $1 microwave "chemical" TV dinners.

 

[fillyjonk]

Several years ago I tried a "barbecued brisket" sandwich on the Eagle. It was not something I would order again, enough said about that.

Count me in the group that would prefer a "Panera style" to a "chipotle style." I've never eaten at Chipotle but I presume it's pretty much exclusively Mexican/Tex-Mex style? That would get really old really fast on a long trip, at least for me. (At least Panera has sandwiches OR soup OR pasta). Also, some of us with 'aging stomachs' can't always handle a lot of spicy stuff really well - I am sure Chipotle does "low spice" things, but still.

That said? I kinda like the dining cars as they are. I get the desire to save money (or maybe generate revenue from the "promotional consideration" of using a national brand), but....