NY’s Best Known Soup Stand Reopens

TheChronicleHerald.ca:

The bisque is back.

The soup stand that inspired the Soup Nazi episode on Seinfeld reopened in midtown Manhattan this week, six years after its famously brusque owner, Al Yeganeh, shut it down and licensed his recipes to a franchising company.

More than 100 people were waiting in line for the noon reopening of the tiny storefront, including a few regulars who remembered the days when Yeganeh ladled broth and imposed discipline from behind the cramped counter.

Much about the shop was the same as in the days before Seinfeld made the place famous, including its strict ordering rules, now posted in nine languages.

“THE LINE MUST BE KEPT MOVING. Pick the soup you want! Have your money ready! Move to the extreme left after ordering!”

But some things are different.

Yeganeh neither owns nor operates the store now. Like other Original SoupMan stores around the country, it is a franchise, although company President Robert Bertrand said Yeganeh remains involved in the business.

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