The Tennessean starts serving meals next week

[NS Newsfeed]

You can sniff out the news:

After 15 months of painstaking renovation, The Tennessean starts serving meals next week on Collierville's Town Square.

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A telltale sign of the progress is the aroma of a huge pot of veal stock that's been simmering 72 hours this week in the prep kitchen.

The stock will be an ingredient for sauces and other dishes.

The four train cars -- two dining cars, a prep kitchen and lounge car -- comprise not just an unusual fine-dining restaurant.

They are also a living museum of the nonprofit Memphis Transportation Museum.

The Tennessean will open for evening meals, 5:30 to 10 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, starting Tuesday.

After the first week, the train restaurant will open for lunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The lounge car, which has needed the most repair, is still about a month away from opening, said Tom Powell, who has led the project with his stepfather, Marshall Criss, for the Memphis Transportation Museum.

One dining car, decorated in lush reds, overlooks the adjacent Norfolk Southern Railroad. The other, accented in velvety green, offers diners a view of Town Square.

Big band tunes from the likes of Tommy

Dorsey and Glenn Miller play over the music system.

The Tennesseean seeks to immerse diners in a train experience of the 1940s.

The Tennessean ran between Memphis and Washington from 1941 to 1966.

Most of the time, the train will be stationary. But the train museum will seek permission from the busy Norfolk Southern Railroad to pull out onto the main line once a quarter for traveling dinners.

Typically, diners should expect to pay about $40 for dinner and $10-15 for lunch, Powell and Criss said.

One feature that the train restaurant will offer is a wine list at "reasonable'' prices, Criss said.

Among steaks and other items, the menu next week will include herb-crusted rack of lamb, roasted garlic mashed potatoes with a port reduction, corn chowder, striped bass with mustard greens and she-crab soup.

To make reservations, which are preferred, call The Tennessean at 853-9447.