Seafood Newburg for $7.35?

By Jim Mathews / President & CEO

As your Rail Passengers staff continues to work through its congressionally assigned mission of finding ways to make Amtrak’s food choices better, fairer, and more widely available, we can’t help but notice that the conversation out in social-media land is increasingly nostalgic for the Amtrak dining car of 50 years ago.

There’s a menu from 1972 circulating online chock full of hearty American dishes and astonishingly low prices. “Why can’t it just go back to that?” one member emailed me this week to ask.

Well, it actually CAN go back to that – but only sort of. Madison ‘’Ned” Butler, our very own Escoffier-trained chef, is leading our effort on the Amtrak Food & Beverage Working Group, which is expected to make its final recommendations to Congress in May. We’ll be looking for traditional dining systemwide in every train where full meals make sense, and for Coach passengers to have their chance to dine as well.

But, speaking as the Number One Fan of the Amtrak Flatiron Steak and Baked Potato (miss you, my favorite dinner, on the Capitol Limited...), the 1972 menu as priced would be more expensive today than what Amtrak is currently charging Coach passengers as a flat rate to “buy in” to traditional dining on the handful of trains offering it.

If you do the a la carte from Amtrak’s menu...say the Seafood Newburg, a half-bottle of wine, and strawberry shortcake for dessert...that's $7.35 in 1972. Pretty reasonable! Except, after you adjust for inflation, that’s $52.90 in today dollars. If Amtrak were to offer this exact 1972 menu today with prices adjusted for inflation a lot of people's heads would explode.

Another point, the entrees listed really do reflect a pretty narrow range of tastes and preferences. In the post Food Network era, Americans expect many different kinds of choices. My wife would not eat from this menu if it were offered. Neither, likely, would two of my daughters-in-law and possibly one of my sons.

As it turns out, Americans today are drinking 42% less milk than they did in 1970. Yogurt was barely making a dent in retail sales in 1970. In 2014, that rose to 1.2 gallons per person per year – a 1,700 percent jump (no, that’s not a typo). Overall, we’re eating more chicken and less beef than we did when passengers chose from that menu, and we’re eating less ice cream but way more cheese. And, we’re eating enormous amounts more than we did back in 1970. The Pew Research group reports that even ten years ago in 2010, the average American ate 2,481 calories per day – 23 percent more than in 1970. Nearly half of those calories come from flours and grains, compared with just a bit more than a third from flours and grains in 1970.

Tamales, grain bowls, fresh salads with more than just iceberg lettuce, Asian fusion cuisine, Tex-Mex, organic, allergen-free, gluten-free, vegan...these would have been exotic oddities to the average American diner in 1970.

While we have worked pretty hard to bring traditional dining back to Amtrak, and I'm proud of what we've done on that to date, I think people have to realize that whatever menus are brought in today must reflect a much wider array of tastes and desires and sensibilities. None of us eat the way we did 51 years ago. Some of us won’t like everything on the menu. But the idea is to make it so that MORE of us like SOME of the things on the menu, and to make it so ALL of us can afford to buy it. We think that Amtrak can do a better job of offering fresh, clean food, prepared on-board, covering a wider range of dietary needs and concerns, and at a price that’s fair but not eye-watering.

If you’re coming to RailNation:DC next week, you can check out our AleNation reception which Ned Butler will co-host with a colleague from the Food & Beverage Working Group, Haley Glynn from the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. You have to register so we have enough to eat...but follow the link register for the event, and come talk food while sampling chili Texas style and Cincinnati style!