Soup for you! .. at new SoupMan franchise at Mohegan Sun

April 07, 2010 12:00 am • Last Updated: April 07, 2010 4:36 am

By By KATIE WARCHUT Day Staff Writer

Patrons line up for soup and sandwiches at The Original SoupMan restaurant at Mohegan Sun.

Confronted by a surly face and big bowl of soup in Mohegan Sun's winter entrance food court, a recent passerby stops to ask, "Is this the place from 'Seinfeld?'"

The question seems to elicit slight discomfort from public relations folks at a recent tasting event. Glancing at each other, they say yes.

That's the short answer, the one that brings people in to try soup so good, customers like Jerry Seinfeld lived in fear they would break one of the store's strict rules and be denied its deliciousness.

The long one is that Al Yeganeh, the man responsible for making the world-renowned soup, would rather not associate himself with the show, even if it made him famous.

Yeganeh owned Soup Kitchen International at 259-A West 55th Street in Manhattan, the inspiration for the Seinfeld episode. Sometime after the "Soup Nazi" episode aired - making famous the phrase "No soup for you!" - Jerry Seinfeld himself visited the kitchen and was thrown out of the restaurant, according to Seb Rametta, executive vice president and founder of The Original SoupMan.

"He's a perfectionist," Rametta explains of Yeganeh. "He worries about his soup - that's his life. He has very high standards. Soup is something he wants people to enjoy but not joke about."

Soup Kitchen International closed in April 2006, and Yeganeh launched a chain called The Original SoupMan. A SoupMan franchise opened in November inside Fidelia's Market at Mohegan Sun.

The SoupMan Web site still lists the rules from the original restaurant, advising customers, "For the most efficient and fastest service, the line MUST be kept moving. Pick the soup you want! Have your money ready! Move to the EXTREME left after ordering!"

And for the press, the "n word" (nazi) is forbidden.

But the franchises appear to stick with the traditional model of customer service. On televisions above the counter, Yeganeh's image says things like, "Salads so fresh but never rude. Sandwiches so good they make me smile."

And the soups, while expensive ($4.99 a cup for most, $7.99 a cup for the lobster bisque) were designed to keep the quality ingredients of the originals, Rametta says. The soup is made off-site in smaller batches, he says, to keep ingredients like vegetables crunchy. A line of Original SoupMan's frozen soup also can be found in some grocery stores.

It's hard to say how the soups compare to the original, but the seafood bisque is a creamy mixture of onions, celery, carrots, potatoes and red peppers, with chunks of lobster, shrimp, scallops and crawfish.

The tomato basil is heavy on the tomato, with bell peppers, onions, spinach and carrots and sherry wine. Other offerings include broccoli and cheese soup and chicken vegetable noodle.

At Mohegan Sun, however, where the newest addition to the food court features sepia-toned images of New York City, franchise owner Lloyd Sugarman added sandwiches to the menu, which he says have been a bigger draw than the soup. The Hudson ($9.85), for example, is shaved steak drenched in gooey American cheese with mushrooms and mayo on a toasted sub. The 42nd Street Reuben ($8.95) is extra lean corned beef topped with sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on grilled rye bread.

"We wanted the food to be as good as the soup," Sugarman says.