North Woodstock, New Hampshire - September 11, 2008
It's usually appropriate to be fashionably late to a dinner party.
Not so at Café Lafayette.
This dinner party begins at 5 o'clock sharp and will leave all latecomers behind.
In operation since 1989, the Café Lafayette dinner train transports passengers back in time to another era.
"It's got a lot of ambiance," says Bonnie Gabriel, a passenger from New Jersey.
"There's a romance to trains you don't find in many other situations," says Leslie Holloway, co-owner of Café Lafayette.
Passengers are served a gourmet five-course meal and a side of spectacular White Mountain scenery.
Archie Prevost is one of the train's engineers. He's been operating this train since it first rolled out of the depot in 1989.
"The main thing is to give everybody a smooth ride and keep everybody happy and when you do that they give you a nice meal," Prevost laughs. "That's a reward."
But the kitchen is the center of all activity.
The small staff is used to preparing meals while on the move-- feeding up to a 160 passengers every night.
Head Chef Doug Trulson explains, "We serve a five-course meal. We do everything from scratch in our kitchen here."
The trip itself is two hours long.
The train heads south along the Pemigawasset River at a leisurely pace of less than 10 mph.
Slow enough to savor the breathtaking views right outside the window.
Two hours of pure bliss in a very romantic setting that leaves passengers begging for more and planning their next night out on the rails.
"If people don't walk off this train saying when can we come back again and who can we bring, then we haven't done our job," Holloway says.
The dinner train costs $70 to $80 a person. Drinks are extra. The train runs until October 26.
Click here for more information on the Café Lafayette dinner train and on visiting the North Woodstock area.
Keagan Harsha - WCAX News
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