Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, and Report for America
BURLINGTON— Just after 3:30 p.m. Saturday, July 11, Griffin Carrier laid out nearly 170 salad plates on the kitchen counter of the Champlain Valley Dinner Train.
Carrier, a first-time cook on the train, and three other cooks had a long night ahead of them. They were responsible for cooking and plating 91 beef entrees, 50 chicken dinners, 27 fish entrees and three vegan ravioli dishes, along with appetizers and dessert.
Mark Williams, who oversees front of the house kitchen operations, stepped over to help Carrier with the salad plates.
“I’m right behind you with the cukes,” he told Carrier, moving from the fridge to the prep counter.
The kitchen, on rail or otherwise, is where Williams truly thrives. His restaurant in Rutland, Southside Steakhouse, has catered the Champlain Valley Dinner Train since the service began in 2018. The dinner train runs seasonally from July to October, offering a three-course gourmet dinner.
For the last couple of years, the train has gone from Burlington to Vergennes and back, but this year, the route goes about 12 miles farther to Middlebury. The round trip takes about three hours.
For the denizens of the kitchen car, the dinner train experience is a mixture of chaos and precision: getting orders right while also keeping their balance as the train rumbles along the rails. The diners, meantime, sit in blissful ignorance as they watch some of Vermont’s most scenic vistas roll by.
“This is a full restaurant kitchen where it’s done just like it’s done in the restaurant. So that sets us apart from a lot of different dinner trains,” said Selden Houghton, president of Vermont Rail System, which operates the train. “You’re able to have a much better quality product because of it.”
Right around 5 p.m., the train started moving. It took a couple of minutes for everyone in the car to get their balance as they navigated the narrow galley kitchen. Ten servers, dressed in black with gray ties in half-Windsor knots, loaded plated salads onto serving trays.
This year, the train has a new head chef, Patrick Norton. He has been in the industry for years, but became business partners with Williams in 2017.
“Pat is the true genius when it comes to palate and flavor profiles,” Williams said.
Norton has a simple approach. He seasons the steak, the most popular menu item, with just salt and pepper.
“It doesn’t matter what you do in the kitchen, if you can’t execute it, it doesn’t matter,” Norton said. “I’d rather do something simple that you can execute than something complicated that you’re gonna screw up.”
Several trays of 8-ounce New York sirloins sat in racks beside the small stovetop. Dinner was to be served at 6 p.m., so Norton had to have the steaks ready by 5:45 p.m.
At 5:15 p.m., the steaks were put in the oven and then rested for 15 minutes to let the juices set.
“The longer they sit the better they’ll be,” Norton said.
One railcar ahead, classical music played softly on the speakers while passengers glanced out the windows to the greenery outside.
New Jerseyans Greg and Virginia Stinemire were taking the train for the first time.
“We came sightseeing up in Burlington, so we saw this train and thought it’d be exciting,” Virginia Stinemire said.
The train gets a mix of locals who come back every year as well as tourists, Houghton said.
With four dining cars on the train, servers get around 12,000 to 25,000 steps each shift, said Abigail Noritz, a server assigned to the furthest car.
“It gets heavier and longer every time,” she said.
Noritz and her coworker, Kaj Jewell, paused in the vestibule to get some air after another trip from the kitchen.
As 6 p.m. rolled around, the kitchen grew noticeably more tense as dinner service peaked.
“Three fish, one beef,” Williams yelled as he handed plates to servers.
Every few orders, servers hurried back to the kitchen as they discovered a hiccup with the train’s new food ticket system, which allows passengers to order meals in advance. The list had been printed the night before but not again on Saturday, after several changes had been made.
“So far, problems. Whether those problems are gonna be resolved tomorrow or if they’re going to be enduring, I can’t tell you,” assistant manager Alex Schwarzmueller said.
Dinner service began winding down around 6:40 p.m. By the time the strawberry shortcake was served, the rush had subsided. The kitchen that had buzzed with shouted orders only minutes before settled into a quieter rhythm as passengers finished their meals and the train continued north toward Burlington.
Norton, the head chef, was ready to clock out.
“This is the time when I start to think about drinking beer,” he said.
Emily Rodin is an intern for UVM’s Community News Service through Report for America’s Local News Internship Program.