A Festivus For the Rest of Us!

Happy Festivus everybody! 2011 was a great year, so I’ll pass on the Airing of the Grievances.

The Soup Nazi is Back!

He's baaaackkk....

The Soup Nazi Man aka Al Yeganeh is back. After franchising (as the Original SoupMan, to middling success), Yeganeh’s original hole in the wall spot was shuttered in 2004. But now he will be blessing appreciators of the magic he worked with the freshest ingredients by re-opening his OG soup stand on July 20th. This. Is. Epic.

After graduating from college I worked at Universal Motown for a few years, and the label’s offices were about a block away from Soup Kitchen International on 259A West 55th Street, NYC; made infamous by Seinfeld’s “The Soup Nazi” episode (see below). I used to be sent on “soup runs” for the office, standing on line for way too much time, for soup that totally worth the wait. There is no doubt in my mind that one of the lobster bisque’s key ingredients was crack cocaine. It was THAT good. Same for the Mexican turkey chili.

On one occasion I for some reason ordered three of the wrong soups, realizing the err of my ways only after I had stepped off line. Mind you, I had been waiting on said line—which moved briskly due to people following the clearly posted rules of knowing what you want, having your money ready, and then stepping far to the left—for a good half hour.

Considering Yeganeh’s no nonsense to the point of surliness demeanor, I was not about to go back to the front of the line for fear of getting cursed out. I resigned myself to take a mulligan and order more soups, paying for them out of my own pocket in order to stay in the good graces of my bosses. Luckily the line had gotten short enough that Mr. Yeganeh immediately spotted me and asked me if something was wrong. After explaining why I had to order more soups, he quickly corrected my order, at no charge. The peeps at Universal Motown devoured their soups and Mr. Yeganeh in my eyes was strictly the cool as a fan Soup Man, no N-word*.  [Spotted at Gothamist]

*except for the title of this post, obviously.