Gourmet menus enjoyed in the dining car or waiting for a train, oysters and champagne instead of the old, somewhat stale toast. At the station there is no lack of fine dining and indeed trains, inside and out, have become increasingly ideal locations to give vent to the creativity of great and creative gastronomic talents.

Bye bye sandwich
The station is no longer a place for frugal and hasty meals and not even the train. Assuming they ever were. Already because the train, then downgraded to cheap (and recently returned in vogue as a means of chic transport), was once the way to travel more luxurious. In the restaurants' refreshment points there is still today an exquisite concentrate of old and new Europe, which fills the bistros, cafes and brasseries of the large stations and winds its way through the wagons of restaurants with menus signed by the great chefs. The atmospheres are literary and evocative, the furnishings suggestive even when they are not gorgeous.

For the station?
One of the first to be mentioned The blue train of Paris, with its crystal chandeliers, the waiters in uniform and the dishes, ça va sans dire, strictly French. It is located inside the Gare de Lyon and was inaugurated with the name of Buffet de la Gare de Lyon, by the then President of the Republic Emile Loubet, on 7 April 1901. Here you can enjoy a delicious and refined cuisine or take a tea or an aperitif, contemplating the windows, the golden stuccos and refined paintings.

The Guardian ranking
From the modern baroque of the Midi of Bruxelles all 'East Express of Istanbul to finish with the To Train I'm Rouf from Athens, with outdoor track for the summer, the new gorumet destinations are right between the station tracks. As the Guardian points out with its ranking dedicated to restaurants in European stations, where there is also the Vyta Santa Margherita, boulangerie of travelers at the Rome Termini station headed by the Retail Group of Nicolò Marzotto or the new city bar inside Santa Maria Novella. Just to name names. The British newspaper also mentions Kutno Station, in Poland, o the Grand Brasserie at Agen Station French, the Basel Brasserie, Spean Bridge, in the Scottish Highlands. Without forgetting the Gare de Saint-Germain-des-Fossés, in the Auvergne, where one can taste the best omelettes in the world.

TO board
If on the one hand it is right to mention the most refined Venice Simplon Orient Express where you experience an exuberance of splendor in the round, more affordable for everyone deserve our attention delicious dishes that Yes find on Arrows of Trenitalia. Itinere is in charge of the French group Elior, who takes care of the catering on high-speed trains with innovative services: the menus for the executive class bear the signature of Carlo Cracco, in the restaurant regional dishes are offered on rotation and then vegetarian menus, for children, snacks for celiacs and diabetics and local service. Luxury flows between the rails.

Emanuela Di Pasqua
July 2019

Photo credits Geograph WIkipedia

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