A special event that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the LNER brand will be held in York on Monday, 6th and Tuesday, 7th November with a unique, pop-up restaurant titled “The LNER 1923 Restaurant”.
The 1923 Restaurant will be set up at The Cookery School at The Grand Hotel in York, the former headquarters of the London and North Eastern Railway.
It will offer guests the chance to travel back in time through their tastebuds and a specially created menu that will showcase some of the most delicious dishes served to train passengers over the past 100 years, and beyond.
During the course of each evening, diners will be transported back to the year the LNER brand first began with a fully immersive supper-club-style experience. Guests will get a gourmet glimpse into the infamous roaring twenties, and be taken back to a time of post-war optimism, rising prosperity, and glitzy glamour, all accompanied by stunning 1920s décor and music, and an electric atmosphere.
Guests will also experience a taste of what may be to come in the shape of a futuristic dessert created to suggest what onboard cuisine might be like 100 years from now.
The star of the show will be the carefully curated menu inspired by the past, present, and potential future of the food served to passengers travelling on LNER's Azuma trains, with courses reflecting the years 1923, 2023, and 2123.
Each course will have a dedicated drink pairing, expertly selected to complement and enhance the different flavours. Starters will be paired with the classic 1920s cocktail, the Bees Knees, which is a mix of dry gin infused with honey and lemon juice.
The main course will be paired with one of the crisp white wines currently served onboard LNER trains, whilst dessert will be accompanied by an Instant Infused Gin Fizz comprising homemade gin and British fruit and herbs.
Menu du jour
Starter – 1923
- Crème de Pois Vert et Sole Devon
- A chilled pea soup with watercress reduction & slow cooked sole
- A pairing of two dishes from an actual 1920s LNER menu
- Vegan/ GF option – Crème de Pois Vert et Poisson Faux
- A chilled pea soup with watercress reduction and faux fish (watermelon steak)
Main – 2023
Inspired by the current LNER menu and using high-quality ingredients from across the East Coast route
- Confit chicken with chanterelle cream reduction, wilted cavolo nero & cream potato
- Vegan/ GF option – Chestnut terrine with chanterelle cream reduction, wilted cavolo nero & creamed potato
Dessert – 2123
- Mushroom panna cotta, spirulina ‘moss' with a rhubarb, pear and ginger gel cover, finished with amaranth micro blossom.
Although the event is free, London North Eastern Railway is asking people to ‘pay' for their meal with donations to York Foodbank. Guests should therefore bring a small selection of non-perishable, unopened goods as donations that will be collected by the charity.
The evenings are likely to prove popular, so booking early is advised, and reservations can be made via Eventbrite online here.
Claire Ansley, Customer Experience and People Director at LNER, said: “For the past 100 years, LNER's chefs have created culinary delights for our customers, always striving for excellence. Whilst our menu has evolved over the years, our commitment hasn't wavered, and ‘The 1923 Restaurant' gives us an opportunity to celebrate this and spotlight the culinary talent we continue to nurture.
“The menu will take guests on a mouth-watering journey through the decades whilst representing the evolution of the LNER brand.”
Through train and also air travel, the passenger is not given the CHOICE of the quality and price that could be available. Just because someone “on high” has personal objections to travellers being given this choice, it is not permitted. Surely I feel there are a number of passengers who are making special trips and are willing to pay more than the costs of a pack of biscuits and crisps. No choice available either for First Class passengers. Rice with curry or not at all. I have avoided the logical statement of “take it or leave it”.
I concur with your article. Very well described.
LNER wasn’t a “brand”, it was one of the “Big Four” companies formed at grouping in 1923 which brought a myriad of smaller companies together in an attempt to try and bring some order to Britain’s railways and it ceases to exist at Nationalisation in 1948. The LNER we know today is simply branding applied to the East Coast Mainline franchise when the government took operations back under state control. The anniversary is therefore to celebrate 100 years since the inception of the LNER not 100 years of the brand.
Agreed. It’s not as if the “brand” has been in existence for all of those years.