Q10: The Soup Market

The Soup Market

• 2211 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
• David Jurena
• (414) 727-8462
• thesoupmarket.com
• davej@thesoupmarket.com

1. How did you fall in love with soup?

As a child, it was the only way I’d eat vegetables. Unfortunately, it all came out of a red can back then. It’s very comforting, especially when you’re sick. It’s the perfect meal.

2. What made you decide to open a soup restaurant in Bay View? Why did you think it would succeed?

Bay View was an area that we’ve always liked, and we actually looked at several spaces before deciding on our current location. We like this space because it’s really wide and has big windows, so we can see what’s happening outside. Honestly, when we started, our success was based on the rent being affordable, which it continues to be.

3. Do you make all your own soup? If so, where did you get your recipes?

All the soup is made in Bay View from scratch. Some of our stocks are made at our store downtown and our dumplings, wheat bread, and cookies are made at our Hales Corners location, but we make all of our own food. The recipes have been developed over the last dozen years or so, and the ideas come from everywhere. My grandmother’s meatloaf recipe is the inspiration behind our meatloaf-and-mashed-potato soup. I really love roasted vegetables as a snack, so I created the Vegan Roasted Vegetable Chili as a result.

4. What are some of your favorite cooking shows?

The only one I watch regularly is Good Eats with Alton Brown. I think he’s very interesting to watch and he’s very scientific, which I like. I’m more interested in his techniques, but he has great recipes, too. Giada De Laurentiis isn’t hard to look at, so I’ll watch her occasionally too.

5. What would you advise home cooks about making soup? What is the secret to making great soup?

Start with great stock, use the best products that you can afford, and take your time. It takes time to develop the proper flavor for many soups, and you can’t hurry that. Also, season things properly. It’s amazing what a little salt, pepper, hot sauce, or herbs can do for something.

6. What are the challenges of being primarily wholesale and catering? What percentage of your business is direct sales/retail?

Actually, it’s not really challenging at all. We designed this business on purpose to do both. Wholesale is like a great backbone for us. It gives us stability. Catering and boxed lunches are a great avenue. They provide us with great marketing and the ability to get our products in front of new people all the time. About 40 percent of our business is retail and the other 60 percent is split between wholesale, catering, farmers markets, and corporate events. We have several office buildings that we get to go into and set up a table over the lunch hour.

Other than getting bigger and adding more stores, the concept of fresh soup has remained pretty constant. I’d like to think we’ve evolved/matured/aged well over the last six years, but I really hope that we’ve satisfied our customers and given them a reason to continue to support us.

8. What would make Bay View a better environment for your business?

That’s tough question. I can’t think of anything. It’s been very supportive. Maybe just having more businesses in the area would bring us more customers, but that’s more a circumstance of the current economy.

9. When did you open the Public Market store? The new one in Hales Corners? Bay View?

The downtown location opened in October 2006, and we’ve been open in Hales Corners for just over a year. Bay View was established in February 2004; prior to us, the building housed the old Big Beer Bar. We’ll be opening more in 2010.

10. What do you like best about the work you do/your business?

I love the fact that I can have a restaurant career but still have a normal life. Because I can do our production during the day, I’m able to go to all my kids’ school events, plays, concerts, etc. That would be impossible if I worked at a restaurant that had late night hours. Balance is very important to me. I also really like our customers and our employees. They really make it worthwhile.