1966 Lark Dinner Menu

For most of its history, the San Francisco-Los Angeles Lark left its respective terminals at 9 pm and arrived at the other end at 9 am. That didn’t leave much time for dinner, yet the train carried a massive, three-unit articulated car, with one unit used as a kitchen, one for dining, and one as a lounge.

Click image to download a 414-KB PDF of this menu.

However, my 1966 timetable shows the train leaving at 8 pm and arriving at 7:30 am, saving a half hour. SP had also replaced the three-unit diner-lounge with an ordinary dining car. These changes were made in response to declining patronage, which also reduced the offerings on this dinner menu.

The menu is hardly the first-class fare Lark diners expected before 1957, when it was an all-Pullman train. The fanciest meal is a sirloin steak sandwich, similar to the one offered on the 1964 Sunset lunch menu, but with chips instead of onion rings and julienne potatoes and costing 50 cents more to boot (a total of almost $26 today). This is really an a la carte menu as juice, soup, salad, dessert, and beverage are all extra. Multiply other prices by eight to get today’s dollars.


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