I read a few years ago on a website that a worker at Sarducci's thought the train car attached to the restaurant was haunted. I don't remember the website and cannot find it. My mother, two young sons and I had lunch at "The Vintage Steak House" this past Tuesday, April 14, 2009. The restaurant is inside the old train cars attached to the other restaurant, Sarducci's.
When we were seated, I remembered the story I read online and asked our waitress if it's true, that the train car was haunted. She gave me a surprised look and said "Yes", that she sometimes opens the restaurant at 7am and hears weird noises and that the area right behind us sometimes gets really cold.
Of course, I thought she was just fueling my interest and to make our visit to the restaurant more enjoyable, I just shrugged it off. I took photos of the area we were seated in, admiring the old train cars and their decor. Behind us and a bit to the right, there's a window that looks into an aisle and wine wrack. I took photos of that area and the table that is next to the window. I also took photos on my cell phone. We did not hear any noises, however when I went to the restroom just down the hall from our train compartment area where we were seated, I felt this really uncanny feeling of being followed and watched. I was alone in the bathroom and could not wait to get out and back to my table! We ate our lunch and were on our way to tour Los Rios Street, located directly behind the restaurant, across from the Amtrak train tracks. We spoke with a garden shop owner about if the area was haunted. She told us about a ghost tour they have in October, and of the "White Lady Ghost". I thought it was really interesting.
When we get home later, I uploaded my photos off my memory card. I was looking at a particular photo, not expecting to find anything, but something so eerie popped out at me. I was completely shocked to find a face in the wine rack that was just outside our eating area in the train car restaurant. The head had white hair. My husband tweaked the contrast around and converted it to black and white, and you can clearly see the left side of "Her" face, complete with eyes, nose, mouth, wrinkled cheek bone. I am convinced that we have a ghost or spirit in our photo.
A few days later, I remembered taking some photos with my cell phone. In one of my photos, there is a blue ball of light in the area right behind us, next to the window looking into the wine rack. I've never had an "Orb" in my photos before (just normal dust and booked... And I am a professional. Photographer by the way, so I look at thousands of photos and have never seen anything like this before).
I thought I'd share my story. I was always a skeptic about ghosts and spirits, but since my visit this past Tuesday I am a skeptic no more.
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Have you read my descriptions that I have written with the links? I explain in more detail about the ghosts of San Juan Capistrano and even provide links to their tales. If you read the ocweekly link, you'll know why I posted it. There is more than one ghost haunting the area, I believe I just happen to have one of them in my photos.
The workers at The Vintage Steakhouse were clearly spooked by my images. I did go back a week after my first visit and showed everyone. We were all baffled to why there was a face in the winerack. No one who works there had hair like that, and no one else was dining when we were there. On our first visit, I asked our waitress if the place was haunted and she gave me a brief account of hers as I described in the original post. She would hear strange, unnatural noises and experience cold spots (the area behind where we were seated). I also explained the feeling I had when I was in the restroom, which was a feeling of being watched/followed. I never feel that way, and that was before I knew I had a ghost in my photo. Later, after uploading my photos to my computer and seeing the ghost in my photo freaked me out, especially the fact that the ghost has white wavy hair... Just as the "White Lady Ghost" has been described as having. Coincidence? I don't really think so.