“Dueling Dining-Car Chefs” Weekend with James Porterfield!

This post should also be called “When Guests Become Friends”, as it truly was that kind of a weekend at the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre!

James D. Porterfield, historian and author of “From The Dining Car” and “Dining By Rail”, and “On The Menu” columnist for Railfan & Railroad Magazine, joined us at the Inn as Guest Chef for our May 28-30  “Dueling Dining-Car Chefs” Weekend, and instead of “dueling” (LOL), he and Chef Dan created two delicious, multi-course dinners for our guests from the finest of historic dining car recipes!

Chef Jim prepared his feast on Friday evening, centered around the Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Deviled Slice of Roast Beef with Mustard Sauce”, and Chef Dan created his dinner on Saturday, with “Coast Starlight Chicken Breast with Pinot Noir and Dried Cherries” from the Amtrak West SBU as the focal point. Our gourmet railfan guests enjoyed both dinners accompanied by wine, period music, Andrew Fletcher’s great illustrated railroad magnets (NS, of course!) from CustomTrains.org as favors, Jim’s excellent commentary on each course, and more Pocahontas railroad trains sailing past the Inn than I think we’ve Ever had! Our guests enjoyed touring the area, as well as “railfanning” on the Inn’s track-view balcony and patio, and Elisse & several of the Inn’s guests even wound up in in the Inn’s “railfan hot tub” in the moonlight, and one even got to go ATVing with Dan!

James Porterfield’s first article on the Inn, “Almost Heaven?” in Railfan & Railroad, with his famous quote about the Elkhorn Inn being “the best legal train-watching location in the USA”, together with his friendship, enabled us to create with him what we believe is the “ultimate” Railfan Foodie weekend! The dinner weekend was such a success, in fact- and Jim enjoyed playing chef so much- that the Elkhorn Inn will host another “Dueling Dining-Car Chefs” Weekend, Sept. 3-5, 2010 over Labor Day Weekend, with a totally new menu! Only 4 guest rooms remain available for this special weekend, so call us at 1-800-708-2040 or 304-862-2031 as soon as possible, if you’d like to join us!