On the unexpected pleasures of eating with strangers in close quarters
December 26, 2019Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg/Alamy Stock Photo
Almost a decade ago, I made two good decisions. The first was to move from New York to New Orleans. The second was to get there by train. I boarded theat Penn Station, carrying a small, soft-sided cooler that contained a loaf of bread, a stick of dried Italian sausage, blocks of cheese and pâté, a bag of my mother’s chocolate chip cookies, and a bottle of Bulleit rye. I was not going to go hungry.
Amtrak has replaced its traditional dining car with “flexible” airline-style meals on most of its overnight routes east of the Mississippi.But I was equally thrilled each mealtime, when a knock came at my cabin door, alerting me that it was time to emerge and weave my way to the dining car. While I have almost completely forgotten the meals I ate there , I remember each of the dining companions with whom, as a solo traveler, I was randomly joined.
Look, the world is always trying to break us apart, not least at the table, where we’re regularly told that the glorious future consists of ever more efficient delivery services that promise we’ll never have to cross paths with strangers on our way to getting fed. Amtrak announced in September that it would be suspending traditional dining-car service, the kind with white tablecloths and cooked-to-order food, on most overnight routes east of the Mississippi.
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