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"What if you boarded the train in New York and had dinner at Eleven Madison or NoMad, and then you had dinner on the train and then got to Chicago and had dinner at Alinea?"
Sounds like a culinary dream but one that may well become reality if Grant Achatz has anything to do with it.
Speaking with Zagat about the huge success of the Eleven Madison Park and Alinea restaurant swap which saw Achatz and chef Daniel Humm swap restaurants for a special set of dinners - Achatz has hinted at the teams working on a new idea adding: "They’re going to hate me for saying this."
The basic concept seems to be on the teams buying a train to reinstate an old line between New York and Chicago. As the chef explained "We’re thinking about buying a train, because, historically, the 21st Century Limited ran between NYC and Chicago."
The train that Achatz refers to was actually called the 20th Century Limited and operated between the two cities from 1902 to 1967. It departed from Grand Central Terminal in New York and stopped in LaSalle Street Station in Chicago - it was referred to by many at the time as the world's greatest train. There was even a cocktail named after the locomotive published in the Cafe Royal Bar Book in 1937.
If the project is successful we expect the trip to feature a truly incredible dining experience - incorporating dinners at two of America's best restaurants and what promises to be the best train food ever sold.
We'll be watching this carefully and bringing you any updates as they happen, for now, take a look at this Storify showing what happened the last time the restaurants swapped places.
