The big picture is this: a place where people who love trains can enjoy great food and trains, both prototype and model.
I have established https://groups.io/g/davesdepotdiner as a place to hash out this concept in progress. Joining requires approval on my part, so please mention your association with Free Republic if you want to follow.
Lastly, this post is about 90% Grok. I read it, made edits, and in posting concur with the results. You will not believe what thie past two weeks of "Grokstorming" has brought forth. I am not Bert.
And I don’t know how to count. Oboy.
Is there a particular cuisine which appeals to people who like looking at freight trains?
I like it. I don’t think it has anything to do with trains on my part, but if it lets a person watch the comings and goings of the world, I think people in general like that.
Cool concept. I went to a restaurant at a county airport that did good business. People like to dine by the water and where they can watch what they don’t often see
I’ve seen the concept applied to airplanes and airports several different times and places.
Mixed results. Some successful. Some not.
This is probably a great time for something like this considering the Bears might be moving across the state line. We use to live alongside a switch stop for N&S and moving away was bittersweet. None of us wanted to leave the tracks behind. And honestly we asked our realtor to consider as he was searching anything along the tracks. But in reality we traded the tracks for the planes. We only live a mile or so from Grissom and are on a line of flight for take offs and landings. Last weekend was fun, the Thunderbirds were practicing all week, and they are low enough I feel like they are expecting me to hand them a bottle of water. And they just come out of nowhere and boom they are right over you.
I hope things go well for your plans and that the govt doesn’t make it harder than it needs to be.
Family and I ate at a similar place that had just opened in Cheyenne WY. We ate on the patio alongside the tracks.
It’s a neat concept, but in practice, there were these negative aspects:
* Noise!- could not hold a conversation as the engines pulled in.
* The engineers and crew stopped alongside the restaurant (so they could enjoy the cuisine too), so it wasn’t a pass-through.
* Exhaust fumes - not pleasant while eating.
* Overlap - one leaves, another arrives - minimal break.
An interesting option for lunch, but don’t know that I would go out of my way to repeat the experience.
I have no animosity towards trains and the awesome power you feel when they are near, but compared to watching the landing and take-off of jets, well ....
Don’t let your fascination of trains overtake reality for everyone else. Be sure to observe how (and how many) people interact around the tracks - particularly when the trains come in - and stay.
After having my own business and many failures before I got success. Don’t start a business for what you like. Star a business that customers want. How many people will want to buy meals to enjoy the railroad?
Gonna be tough. Nobody buys train sets any more. You’ll have to make it a destination like Oshkosh. Go see the Golden Spike in Omaha.
Add miniature trains running around the restaurant. Maybe a screen or two showing train trips from the conductor view or side window.
Use train whistles to signal waitresses when food is ready or a new customer has been seated.
Maybe serving carts and/or clean up carts that look like cabooses.
And of course a hobo greeting the customers.