Last Thursday, Eugene welcomed a new restaurant into its community. With a ribbon, scissors and Mayor Kitty Piercy on hand, Soup Nation opened in memorable fashion. @@http://www.kittypiercy.com/@@
With its professionally clean and fresh interior, people have been curious about where the new restaurant across from the Fifth Street Market downtown came from.
“People keep asking us if it’s a franchise which is really funny,” said Stacy Jo Armstrong, manager of Soup Nation. “It’s all local and as organic as we can make it.” @@http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soup-Nation/187079434666947@@
Beyond simply being local, Soup Nation’s original roots can be traced back to the corner of East 14th Avenue and Kincaid Street outside of Prince Lucien Campbell Hall. On the edge of campus 14 years ago, Mark Stern, the owner of Soup Nation, started serving the University his soup recipes from the Carte Blanche Soup Carte. @@http://www.registerguard.com/web/business/26087248-41/soup-stern-cart-nation-opening.html.csp@@
Still located in the same place today, Stern saw the popularity and business model of the food cart as something that could transfer into a permanent building.
“It was just kind of a natural progression for us to do something that is much more upscale and a little more gourmet,” Stern said. “The demand was finally there, and the space became available, and I’d had the idea for quite awhile.”
Having a permanent location with more space to work with, Soup Nation offers more options than the smaller Carte Blanche provides. Its big open windows pour in spring sunlight as comfortable chairs offer patrons a place to sit and relax. The coffee and pastries in the morning, followed by the expanded lunch menu makes it a place to hang out any hour of the day.
“It’s basically soup cart times 10,” said Armstrong, who managed Carte Blanche last year before making the move to manager at Soup Nation.
With over 80 homemade recipes, Soup Nation can offer its customers a variety of nine different soups each day — a larger amount than the cart’s four to five daily soups. With the extra space, Soup Nation also offers a sandwich menu, a customizable salad selection, bread bowls and fresh pastries and coffee for morning customers. The larger kitchen also allows the restaurant to bake its own bread and keep freezable soups for customers to buy and take home.
The move to the new location with all of the possibilities doesn’t mean Stern is going to break from the business model that made Carte Blanche so popular. Regardless of going to Soup Nation or Carte Blanche, Stern hopes that customers will find the same quality of food at either location. So far, the feedback has been positive.
“It’s been excellent,” Stern said. “We’ve had a great response from both familiar faces from the cart and folks from the catering.”
Staying true to their roots while expanding into the future, Stern, Soup Nation, Carte Blanche and Carte Blanche Caterers all hope to share their local brand of food to the community they were created and expanded within.
“I feel like it’s part of what Eugene is all about with local ingredients and sustainable food,” said Diana Pamir, employee at Soup Nation. “I’m excited to be here.”