You could always make one at home!! (Sorry about the craving!)
Well, working 50 hours a week and attending school full time on top of that pretty much cuts out any time I have to actually cook to nil. Besides, I don't know that I'd even be able to find decent pastrami here!
I will be graduating (hopefully!) one week from tomorrow. After that, maybe I'll start cooking more!
You don't plan a vacation around Gordon Ramsay
Well, I would, but I'm a bit of a gourmand.
Actually, you're right, though. I wouldn't plan an entire vacation around a specific restaurant. But availability of good food definitely factors in where I choose to go: I enjoy going to New York because of the wide variety of great food (in all budget ranges!), and the legendary food of Burgundy was a strong factor in my choice to go to Dijon last December.
Also, the level of food served in an international premium carrier's First Class cabin is a strong factor in me deciding to use my airline miles for such trips.
But on the other hand, I don't know that the kind of food served on Amtrak would do much to either persuade or dissuade me from utilizing that mode of travel. Unless the food were abhorrent, it wouldn't dissuade me, and unless it were Gordon Ramsay on wheels at 10% of his normal prices, it wouldn't persuade me. It just sort of
is, so I'm not sure this whole debate is really even worth having.
You said Amtrak needs to benefit on the experience of proper eateries. Here's the truth: Those eateries have NO, NONE, ZERO, ZIP experience in the travel industry. You expect them to come up with a plan? They sell burgers and tacos, not meals that need to be prepped on-site transfered to trains kept for three days and re-heated and served for three days. NONE I REPEAT NONE OF YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS KNOW HOW TO DO THIS AND HAVE NEVER ATTEMPTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS. Can I be any more clear? Yes I can--
No, but these companies do have experience in creating prepared foods that are cooked quickly and efficiently at their destinations. Most of what you eat at Chili's, Red Robin, or any other chain is basically shipped ready-to-cook to the individual restaurant, where it is grilled/reheated/fried/whatevered and assembled on your plate. Doesn't take a lot of stretching to apply that idea to a moving kitchen, where it's actually already being done. So while I'm not sure it's the right solution, don't discount volkris's idea so quickly.
Currently Amtrak has a contract with one of the largest on-site catering companies in the US... Aramark. I find it surprising that you haven't even mentioned Aramark though I have brought them up at least three times. Aramark provides on-site catering to most (if not all) of Amtraks LD trains. They also supply college campuses, company cafeterias, and the airline industry. They have the greatest experience of any food preparing industry in the United States and have their system down pat. (A) you think that they're going to walk away quietly when Amtrak hires Ruby Tuesday's? and ( B) you honestly think Red Lobster can replace their experience?
They're honestly more similar than different: both specialize in creating a consistent product where much of the work can be done ahead of time and only last-minute preparation is needed at the delivery point. The one thing that
Brinker International,
Darden Restaurants, and
OSI Restaurant Partners have that Aramark doesn't is what volkris points out: massive consumer data research to determine what will most appeal to the target audience.
It seems I have to keep repeating this: you're not buying the menu, you're buying the expertise, the research, the knowhow, and the data. You're looking into getting the best system for the customers, WHATEVER THAT MAY END UP LOOKING LIKE.
These companies have that experience. Amtrak doesn't. These companies are very experienced in the dynamic world of providing a dining experience that caters to the needs of the customer--whatever those needs are! Amtrak... has SDS.
You make a good point. It is entirely possible that all of that research would conclude that the current product Amtrak offers is exactly what the most appropriate and attractive thing is. However, I highly doubt that. I'd bet some sort of retro rail diner offering comfort food would be one of the top things that pops up (perhaps something like our local
City Diner, which was started by a local gourmet/celebrity chef as a return-to-roots kind of thing, and it's doing very well).
Does Amtrak build its own trains? No. It farms that out to companies with the engineering expertise, experience, and resources to do it. Does it smelt the iron for the rails? No, for the same reason. And for the same reason Amtrak should probably look to the experts at the forefront of dining trends for suggestions on how to improve its offerings.
At this point we're going around in circles. I keep saying we should ask the experts for advise, you keep saying you don't like cheeseburgers. You see the disconnect here?
The world is changing and Amtrak is being left behind right when we should be surging ahead. Dining isn't the entire company, no, but it's one front where Amtrak could probably do better.
As I mentioned earlier, the Alaska Railroad contracts out its dining operations, and they do a VERY good job. The food is at least as good as the better Amtrak items I've encountered and is possibly even better. (I haven't dined enough on either to do a true comparison, but from the few times I've sampled both, the ARR's seemed to have the edge over Amtrak.) So not only is it doable, it can be done very well.
And actually, the new contract operation by EDS replaced a previous contractor, who got out of the contracting business to start a restaurant that was very well regarded up here, called The Bridge (he took an old covered bridge and renovated it into a high-end restaurant). Unfortunately, the location wasn't prime and so business suffered, and he ended up closing down after only a year in business, but I had the opportunity to eat there numerous times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Assuming the food he served on board was even half as good (I never got the chance to take the ARR while the dining operation was under his direction), I'd have been very happy with the food in the dining car. This sort of echoes your point above, though: why should the ARR invent its own infrastructure to handle dining when they can outsource it to someone who either has experience in that area or can provide it without the ARR incurring the expense of training, hiring, maintaining, etc.? This could also be applicable to Amtrak.
I think, though, the whole argument between you and ALC isn't really going to do much. As I indicated above, most people (myself included) are not going to consider the dining car's offering when deciding whether to take the train (barring that the food is either gross or phenomenal). The reason this subject came up in the first place was not because Amtrak needs to improve its dining product (outside of the poorly executed parts of SDS and CCC) but really because Amtrak is looking to cut costs. And if a contractor can come in and provide substantially the same (or better!) service at a lower cost because they don't have to pay union wages, then that's the real motivation to outsource.
But as I said before, I'm not going to get into the debate of whether union wage protectionism is a good or bad thing--we've already gone there in other threads and have agreed to disagree.
