Amtrak’s first-class Stephen Starr menu upgrades dining on the rails

“Do you still have newspapers?” the man in front of me asks an attendant as the Amtrak Acela rolls out of Washington, D.C.’s Union Station at 11:55 a.m. on a weekday in June, with the goal of reaching Boston seven hours later.

The service crew member smiles, shakes her head and offers him some consolation. "Something to drink?" she offers. The glossy menu she's distributed lists more than 30 liquid pleasures: Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Woodford Reserve bourbon, margaritas and Pommery champagne included.

Typically when I take a train from my home base, I find myself in one of the last cars, scrambling for a seat and gripping a bottle of water I've brought from home. This trip, I'm sitting up front in a reserved perch with my fingers wrapped around a sleek tumbler of Daou rosé.

My upgrade follows the news in May that Amtrak elevated first-class travel along the Northeast Corridor. "A meal is one way to offer the extra touch," Jen Flanagan, lead public relations specialist for the railroad corporation, says.

No less a brand than Stephen Starr was approached to assist with the effort of serving between 750 and 1,200 first-class meals a day, Monday through Friday. Conveniently, his empire embraces popular restaurants in Philadelphia, where he's based, New York and Washington - station stops along the Acela's 457-mile route. It doesn't hurt that Starr has been an Acela regular since its inception in 2000. As such, he says he's experienced food on board that's been "better and less better."

Honored with the Outstanding Restaurateur award by the James Beard Foundation in 2017, the creator of dining destinations such as Morimoto in Philadelphia, Le Diplomate in Washington and Le Coucou in New York says he was "irrationally excited" by the prospect of serving dishes from his restaurants on public transportation, comparing it to the opportunity of offering great "pizza on the boardwalk." (He's perhaps forgetting that the boardwalk is free, while an Acela first-class ticket is anything but.) Starr's suggestions were winnowed down to a handful of recipes that Amtrak auditioned in its culinary test kitchen in Wilmington, Del., and could "replicate and heat up" the same way as the company's standard first-class dishes.

The debut menu featured chilled sesame noodles from the Continental Mid-town and lasagna al forno from Pizzeria Stella in Philadelphia. I traveled in mid-June to sample the black pepper beef from Buddakan and again at the end of the month to try the baked manicotti from Adrian. (Dishes rotate off every three weeks.) My trips to and from Philadelphia's William H. Gray III 30th Street Station left around noon and returned after 4 p.m., allowing me to evaluate lunch and dinner service as well as the Acela's regular first-class fare.

One forkful into the black pepper beef, and I wanted to book a table at Buddakan. Luscious morsels of tenderloin interspersed with soft caramelized onions, and bright finger chilies share their plate with Chinese crullers. Pleasantly chewy, the crullers made lovely sponges for the take-no-prisoners black pepper sauce, the taste equivalent of a bugle blast. I can see why Starr refers to the dish as a favorite in his realm.

The next trip, I found myself in the unusual position of scraping clean my plate of tender crepes stuffed with ricotta and spinach and draped with a tangy tomato sauce. Food critics tend to pace themselves, after all; another (work) meal is usually a few hours away. Unless a dish is truly delicious, I rarely finish it. As with the black pepper beef, the baked manicotti - made with spinach that tasted as if it had just been plucked from a garden - has me crushing on a restaurant I've yet to meet.

Not every idea can withstand the railroad environment or the logistics involved, which is why no one will see an egg roll that Starr recalls falling apart in the reheating process.

Next stop, Starr-wise, is a choice of the returning chilled sesame noodles or lasagna on July 20.

The regular first-class selections are a mixed Gucci bag. I applaud the idea of butter chicken, but the Acela's version - chicken seasoned as if for a baby and naan doing an unfortunate impression of cardboard - suggests the cooks have never eaten Indian food or even used dairy. And why were there peas and carrots in the mix? Chilled grilled shrimp, on the other hand, was a delight, glazed with a ginger-lit barbecue sauce and splayed over a confetti of slaw strewn with toasted sesame seeds. What I think was supposed to be creme brulee was charmingly served in a little glass jar. Presentation trumped the custard's slick texture, however, and watery brown sugar water on the surface. (The test kitchen might want to invest in a blow torch.)

Breakfast features local pastries sourced from Uptown Bakers in Washington, Featherstone Distribution in New York and LaMarca & Sons Baking in Boston. The regional nods are nice, but even better would be shout-outs to more personal brands. (Allow me to suggest Bread Furst in the District of Columbia, home to one of the best baguettes in the city.) Any meal is better with a thick cloth napkin, which the Acela provides. Eating to the sway of 135 miles per hour invites a few touch-ups.

Some first-class attendants remember to serve nuts before a meal and some don't. A staple of premium cabins in the air, the fillip rolled out in first class on the Acela in May, along with upgraded wines, which were poured (yes!) as if by a generous friend at a dinner party. No wines from the region traversed by the Acela is a missed opportunity, though.

Pro tip, demonstrated by an attendant who asked if I was a first-class virgin: If you need your tray table for work, nuts are best served in a plastic cup and secured in the mesh pocket behind the seat in front of you rather than in the Acela's fancy little bowls.

The Starr collection is expected to run for six months, after which the amenity will be evaluated, according to Amtrak. The restaurateur says he'd like to see representation from some of his other establishments, including Pastis in New York and Le Diplomate in Washington. While he'd welcome the sight of escargots from the latter, he figures chicken paillard is closer to reality.

Meals are included in the cost of a first-class train ticket, which are priced like airlines - sky-high. I paid $466 and $568, respectively, for my rides on the rails (both full or close to it, by the way). Unless Bernard Arnault adopts me, I'm unlikely to shell out that sum again, although the ease, speed and convenience of the Acela underscores the allure of riding the rails. Plus, as Starr says, "It's nice to know trains won't drop 30,000 feet."

The restaurateur hasn't been asked to upgrade the railroad company's cafe cars, so I'll make the pitch: Pretty please, Amtrak? Starr thinks the famous hamburger from Le Diplomate would make a nice addition. Me, too.

Amtrak has a golden opportunity to attract more passengers through their stomachs, and to slip some conviction into the rallying cry, “All aboard!”