Passenger Trains > City of New Orleans Dining Car Situation

From a Facebook group. A passenger recently rode the Northbound CONO, and to their surprise there is no diner. Not even flex being served? Just your choice of cafe items along with a complimentary alcoholic beverage. 

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Some very tasty choices. 

"Oh thank heaven for 7-11."

Posted from Android

No Hot wings or Red beans and rice?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Of course,this "first class" culinary experience does not merit a discount on the sleeping car fares.    Too bad Gardner isn't required to eat this stuff at his desk.

Not trying to be a you know what, but are you sure this is current standard operations (info and picture) and not some kind of one-off thing? We've all heard about the Midwest Corridor Cafe issue.... I only mentioned, because at one point (and maybe still?) the CONO was NOT operating with a Superliner Diner and just had a Superliner Sightseer Lounge. Meals for sleeping car passengers were served on the tables upstairs in the Superliner Lounge, from the lower level cafe.

However, I believe that the Superliner Diner has been added back, and I thought they had reverted back to a flex dining. However, at one time, there was even another menu in place that was basically worse than the flex menu and what you see in the top photograph.Two trips ago on a LD trip out of Chicago, there was a Superliner Diner issue - they had limited supply of operating ones in the Yard,........  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/23 15:35 by jp1822.

Fresh Choices!!

Or in his often touted office in an airliner toilet. Trash is trash they say!
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> Of course,this "first class" culinary experience
> does not merit a discount on the sleeping car
> fares.    Too bad Gardner isn't required to eat
> this stuff at his desk.

What's the "Deluxe" in a Deluxe Stromboli?

Wow, that's an awful 1st Class menu. How embarrassing to put this out there

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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> Wow, that's an awful 1st Class menu. How
> embarrassing to put this out there

Hahaha they're not embarassed. Not one little bit.

Imagine the cost savings?

Oh, for the heady days in the 1990s when the chefs on the City had the freedom to use their own recipes for bread pudding desserts and competed with each other to see which one had the best offering for passengers. Of course, that was after a full meal was served in a real Superliner dining car and all of the chefs and OBS crews were based out of the New Orleans crew base. Those were perhaps the best days for the City.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> What's the "Deluxe" in a Deluxe Stromboli?


Those are tasty though, but not sure deluxe

Posted from Android

Warmed up gas station dreck on a LD that might, but probably won’t, get you there on time. In coaches that might be clean(ish), on a schedule that is hours longer than it was 60 years ago.

How do you sell this product to the general public?

“Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle…”

Regards

Posted from iPhone

Remember that that this is the "improved cafe menu." If you don't like this one - you should have seen what was coming out of the cafe from 2019 to 2021. MUCH worse! There wasn't even the option of a turkey sandwich. 

I actually like these choices better than the flex dining.  It is not appropriate for first class.  Where are these being served? In the lounge, or in a diner?  I will be riding this train Columbus day weekend and am curious.  

What is the current consist of the CIty of New Orleans - was the Superliner Diner restored? It was supposed to have been. At one point it had been removed from ALL CONO train sets due ot the shortage of Superliner Diners in early summer / late Spring. 

A high cholesterol, high sodium, cheesey crap-lovers dream.  Comparing it to gas station food is an insult to gas stations.  This is one of many reasons I refuse to patronize ATK.  Ride if you like, but don't expect much.

-John

City of New Orleans consists i've seen recentl;y show no return of the dining car.

NPRocky Wrote:
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> City of New Orleans consists i've seen recentl;y
> show no return of the dining car.

So then they are still serving sleeper cars meals in the "booth seating section" of the Sightseer Lounge Car, and hence the cafe menu options, even tough they could - if they wanted to - serve some flex meals. But much easier to have them borrow off the cafe menu, with the sleeping car attendant playing server with the cafe LSA.