Attached to the Savannah Visitor Center, this café offers dining either outdoors at wrought-iron tables or in the railroad car. With the temperature hovering at a balmy 78 degrees, it was very tempting to thaw our cold northern bones outdoors, but the urge to ride the rail won. The interior of the rail car doesn’t looking like a dining car; it is definitely a restaurant, though there are elements of travel in the decor.
The menu offers some Southern favorites, including fried green tomatoes as an appetizer. There are good old-fashioned dinner food choices, like Hobo stew, and an all-day breakfast. Vegetarians have not been neglected either, with a four vegetable plate. Everything is railroad oriented, you will find express entrées, engineer grill, dining car dinner salads, switchback sides, boiler room soup, and box car beverages… I think you get the picture.
I ordered the grilled chicken salad
with unsweetened ice tea (from what I am told, this pegged me as a Northerner even if my accent didn’t). Al ordered the Philly steak sandwich and Joe ordered the soup of the day, Italian Wedding Soup. I had a taste; it had sausage meatballs, pearl barley, and a green vegetable, probably kale (Kay assures me that it's probably spinach), in a chicken stock.
The chicken was served warm, which was a nice surprise. In addition to the greens, there were egg slices, tomatoes, and cucumber. Al’s Philly sandwich had peppers as well as onions with the grill steak, a nice twist, and it came with some very good coleslaw. Joe raved about the soup, and he chose it on purpose to allow room for dessert. He ordered the peach cobbler, which was served warm with ice cream.
It was heavy on cobbler and weak on peaches, but it had a satisfying consistency that screamed Georgia to us.
Service was friendly, the food was satisfying, my glass of ice tea (fresh-brewed tea) was continually filled, and the atmosphere was unique. This is an interesting, if not totally inspired choice, and all the profits go to support the Savannah History Museum. If you answer a questionnaire at the museum, you receive a 10% discount on your meal at the Whistle Stop Cafe.