VIDEO: The Soup Nazi on Seinfeld
After the Seinfeld publicity, Yeganeh closed up his original location and now The Original SoupMan is a franchise with 22 locations. He no longer owns or operates the store, but the reopening of the flagship location still drew crowds. Yes, people lined up around the block for soup in the middle of a heatwave at the end of July. I keep telling you - New Yorkers are crazy.
SoupMan at work! Big sign on the side of the building at 55th St. and 8th Ave.
People lining up for soup
The menu included some favorites: Lobster Bisque, Crab Bisque, Mulligatawny, and George's Favorite Turkey Chili, among others. The Soup Man/Nazi's three rules still apply, and were posted above the soup stand in probably 10 different languages: 1) pick the soup you want, 2) have your money ready, and 3) move to the extreme left after ordering. And in case you still didn't know what to do, painted footprints on the ground led the way.
The soup stand - all those white signs above the stand are the "rules" in different languages!
Instructional footprints on the ground. That's my dress on the left - see how good I am at following directions?
Of course, we're always a couple of people to get out there and join the crazies for events such as this, so Eric and a co-worker came out this way for lunch and I met them in line. We waited in line for about an hour. They had a DJ set up across the street playing music, and some crazy dancing man with a cane that kept me quite entertained.
Dancing man across the street. My favorite move of his was when he used his cane as a bass guitar.
We also saw Reggie Jackson ("Mr. October!" Eric says), who is somehow involved with the company and was there to headline the event. Eric got a picture with him, but frankly, he was quite rude and that kind of soured the whole thing. He was definitely the most unpleasant celebrity we have encountered. But, he was wearing his World Series ring, so if you like that sort of thing, maybe that makes up for it?
Eric and Mr. October
We finally made it to the front of the line and picked up our free t-shirts they were giving out (they say "Soup for me" on the front and "No soup for you!" on the back), then reviewed the menu and made our selections. We placed our order, had our money ready, and moved to the extreme left. We had planned to get both a crab bisque and lobster bisque, but they ran out of lobster bisque so we ended up with only crab. Each serving of soup also comes with bread, fruit (apple, strawberries, grapes) and a piece of chocolate (Lindor truffle).
Soup, front and center
Waiting for soup!
Success! Showing off my t-shirt and bag o' soup
We all went to a nearby park and ate our soup - which we all agreed was good, but we were somewhat underwhelmed. Maybe it was all the hype, maybe it was the fact that it was nearly 90 degrees out and we were eating soup outdoors, or maybe the soup just isn't what it used to be. Who knows? Maybe we'll have to try it again on a less crowded (and less hot) day to give it another chance. It definitely was good - very flavorful, lots of crab - but we weren't quite sure it warranted the "Soup Nazi" attention.
Regardless, it was fun to be a part of the reopening of a famous NYC lunch spot!
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