"We're glad you're here." The sign that greets guests in the foyer of Lou Mitchell's might as well be the Windy City's official welcome mat. The Chicago diner, which celebrated its centennial last year, claims to have invented many of the hallmarks of a classic American morning meal: an all-day breakfast menu; egg dishes that come out to the dining room in little cast-iron skillets; complimentary containers of house-made orange marmalade on every table; and bottomless cups of really hot coffee.
All around the angular counters and rows of booths-for-two hang Route 66 paraphernalia that hearkens to a grand time for automobile travel. The iconic route originally passed right by the diner's front door. For travelers arriving in Chicago from the coast and the plains, or getting ready to embark on a journey out West, this diner was the place to fuel up for, or replenish after, a long trip.
It still is. Though vintage top-down Mustangs don't regularly roll past anymore, Lou Mitchell's is only a block away from Union Station, where Amtrak's new Borealis passenger train from St. Paul arrives in Chicago.
The new route gives Minnesotans a convenient, inexpensive ride between two Midwestern metropolises, with stops along the way in cities including Winona, La Crosse, Wisconsin Dells and Milwaukee. It also gives us choices: The introduction of the Borealis marks the first time in almost 50 years that the Twin Cities has had twice-daily service to Chicago. That makes it possible to get off.