Soup is one of the few comfort foods that also has a health halo. Usually warm and reassuring, yet often light, refreshing and generally affordable, it strikes a chord with consumers in many ways and on many occasions.
But whether a restaurant is a specialist in soup or is using it to boost incremental sales, clever strategies make a big difference, operators say.
Eric Ersher, founder and managing partner of the Zoup! Fresh Soup Company, a 37-unit chain based in Detroit, said his company uses a “soup offering plan” to strategize which of its hundreds of recipes will be offered on the chain’s daily rotating menu.
“You need something that’s vegetarian, gluten free, whole grain, dairy free. … We’re very aware of those categories, and we’re deliberate to do our very best to make sure that we’re delivering on each of them,” he said.
He added that, for some customers who eat traditional varieties and flavors, soup registers as familiar comfort food.
“But there is also certainly a population that’s more interested in exploring new ingredients, new varieties and new flavors, and it’s our job to deliver across the spectrum,” he said.
According to Datassential, which assesses the menus of 4,800 chains and independents, soup’s appearances on menus have increased slightly in the past five years: 2.8 percent more fine-dining restaurants have soup now, and 2.2 percent more quick-service restaurants do. The category is flat among casual-dining restaurants.
Certain types of soup are really gaining traction, such as broccoli, chicken and vegetable, mushroom, and tomato, all of which have seen a more-than-60-percent increase on menus over the past four years.
Bisque’s presence on menus is up by 86 percent over the past year and 160 percent over the past four years, according to Datassential.
Ted Stoner, director of strategic product development for 564-unit burrito chain Qdoba Mexican Grill, said that if a restaurant doesn’t specialize in soup, it helps to present the soup in a variety of different ways.
The Denver-based chain’s signature tortilla soup wasn’t huge when it was first introduced, but sales picked up when the soup was presented as part of a “taco trio” — two tacos, a drink and a soup, he said.
“We went from selling an average of 10 a day to three times that.”
Since then, Qdoba has added a “gumbo,” which was actually invented by staff members at franchise restaurants, who poured tortilla soup over the chain’s “naked” burritos, or burrito fillings served in a bowl without a tortilla.
“You can’t get much easier than that,” Stoner said.
Both the gumbo and the tortilla soup are offered on the chain’s “Craft 2” menu, which was introduced a couple of years ago to allow customers to mix and match smaller portions.
“Now we sell about 10 times the soup we used to sell,” he said.
Bruegger’s also has introduced a soup promotion with its “Baker’s Choice” pairing — a turkey ciabatta panini with a butternut squash soup the 300-unit chain is offering for $6.99 until January.
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, a 460-unit casual-dining chain, in October started promoting a “featured soup.”
A spokeswoman said the chain would promote the soup for about six weeks and change it several times a year. Menus also have notes to “ask your server” about the featured soup.
The first such item is a potato soup with sour cream, Cheddar cheese and bacon bits.
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