Zoup! features hundreds of award-winning soup recipes with 12 rotating daily varieties, including low-fat, vegetarian, dairy-free, low-points and spicy options. Zoup!’s Founder and Managing Partner, Eric Ersher created Zoup! after discovering that really good soup is hard to find. Also, in talking to people, it became clear that there’s something special about soup and the way it elicits thoughts of family, well-being and comfort for many people. Zoup! strives to offer authentic, hand-crafted soups that are as good – and as “feel-good” – as the homemade soups our mothers and grandmothers used to cook up.
Zoup!'s "Something for Everyone" nutritional offerings include low-fat soups such as Veggie Waves of Grain, Old Fashion Chicken Noodle and Frontier 7 Bean, dairy-free soups like the Mulligatawny and Sesame Noodle Bowl, vegetarian soups, including Tomato Bisque and Rustic Vegetable Bean and low-points options such as Spicy Black Bean Chili and Wild Mushroom Barley. Customer favorites also include Chicken Pot Pie, Lobster Bisque and Vegetarian Split Pea.
To help customers select from the soups offered each day, Zoup! encourages sampling. Prices range from $4.65 to $6.95 for a bowl of soup. The menu also includes fresh, made-to-order salads, grilled sandwiches and an array of baked goods and beverages.
For time-starved customers looking for a quick, nutritious meal, Zoup! offers streamlined online ordering. The online system includes a location finder, a complete menu with the day's soups, and online catering ordering and rewards program tracking. The catering rewards program offers customers the opportunity to earn a point for every dollar they spend on catering. Once customers reach 500 points, they will receive a $20 gift certificate.
The Zoup! Story
Zoup! began in 1997 as an idea the company’s founders pondered as they were building their first soup-related business together. That original company, which manufactured and distributed wholesale soup and spice products, gave the partners kitchen-door access to top chefs and managers at hundreds of restaurants. And, it gave them the chance to confirm what they suspected all along.
First, that good soup, really good soup, was hard to find. Second, that soup has powerful intangible qualities that elicit feelings of comfort, warmth and well-being for many people. And, finally, that there was a strong demand in the marketplace for the kind of authentic, hand-crafted, fresh soups that customers love to eat, but seldom cook for themselves.
Inspired by their findings and passion for soup, the founders teamed up with a talented chef who understood their aspirations and believed in the strength of their concept. Then, they devised a careful trial-and-error process that involved hundreds of recipes, and weekly focus group tastings in which scores of participants completed formal evaluations of each potential recipe.
Ultimately, this two-year process yielded hundreds of exclusive soup recipes, and made way for the category-defining, Fast-Casual concept that is now known as Zoup!