California
Related: About this forumColumn: As an L.A. newcomer, I adored Souplantation. I'm grieving its closing
The Los Angeles food scene is renowned for its richness and diversity. So when I moved here from New York in September 2018, I hoped to eventually find my way around the region through its cuisines, inspired by the example of the beloved critic Jonathan Gold, who had died two months earlier.
Instead I discovered Souplantation.
This soup-and-salad restaurant chain with its no-nonsense buffet-style offerings and family-friendly seating sustained me on many nights when I was too tired to cook. The wonton chicken salad was my standby. I relished the soups the bacon bits in the Yankee clam chowder, the robust minestrone, the sweet and tart French onion soup.
A native New Yorker, I was unfamiliar with Souplantation, and only today, upon learning of its closing, am I learning of its origins. The first Souplantation opened in San Diego in 1978, founded by a surfer; the chain expanded in the mid-1980s, after it was acquired by two young entrepreneurs. It weathered an E. coli outbreak and a bankruptcy filing, growing to 97 locations and 4,400 employees at the time of its closure this week due to the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2020-05-07/souplantation-closing-los-angeles
alwaysinasnit
(5,066 posts)radical noodle
(8,000 posts)here in Florida. We had one just a few blocks away. It was one of my favorite places and always busy.
Susan Calvin
(1,646 posts)Just like I remember Cirque du Soleil from the early days. It's sweet tomatoes where I am now and I will miss it so much.