Hamden Restaurant Week 10—The Soup Girl

Some town’s Restaurant Weeks fail to ignite much interest because the participating restaurants aren’t great, or because there isn’t sufficient appearance of value to attract the public, or because restaurateurs skimp on portions or quality ingredients or play to the lowest common denominator, or because organizers fail to impose enough discipline to get everybody on the same page. Some towns leave restaurateurs too many pricing options, or in the worst case pretty much let each restaurant do its own thing. Most people won’t cross the street for a ten percent discount these days—it takes real value to get the public’s attention. Organizing Hamden Restaurant Week, we wanted to offer great value, and thus we matched the best Restaurant Week bargains in Connecticut.

We also wanted to showcase the town’s culinary diversity. We wanted to encourage the whole town to participate, not just the elite restaurants whose higher check averages were compatible with our $12 lunch/$20 dinner, three-course, prix-fixe format. So we included a two-for-one option in the hope that other restaurants would be encouraged to join. And while only two eateries elected that option, my guess is, after seeing the success enjoyed by the participants of the first edition of Hamden Restaurant Week and seeing how well promoted the participating restaurants were (and possibly by having quieter weeks themselves because of the event), more people will elect this option next time. They’ll move a lot of food and they’ll have the chance to convert complete strangers into loyal customers.

One participant who elected the two-for-one option was The Soup Girl, a.k.a. Jessica Hazan.

And we were thrilled to have her. We wanted the diversity, we were already fans of her homemade soups, and we knew that people who didn’t know her would be intrigued. I feel The Soup Girl has helped our cause, demonstrating to hesitant restaurants that the next time around they should strongly consider coming aboard. This event is all about Hamden reaching out to its townsfolk and to folk in the surrounding communities. We want everybody aboard who “gets it.”

There’s a well-worn joke about an old timer who is approached on the street by a beautiful but disreputable woman. “Would you like super sex?” the woman asks the gentleman.

“I’ll take the soup,” he replies.

If the soup is as good as Jessica’s, everyone should take the soup. And everyone did! Reportedly, before Jessica had even parked her shiny soup trailer in the Miller Memorial Library parking lot at 4:30,

she already had eager patrons waiting for her. There was a steady stream of customers, and she was selling out of her soups before her 4:30-7:30 Restaurant Week stint was over.

A list of just some of Jessica’s soups would include: roasted tomato herb with pasta, roasted butternut squash, lemon orzo with chicken, smoked turkey sausage with kale and white beans, Tuscan white bean, roasted red pepper and sun-dried tomato, chickpea rosemary, West African peanut, Thai zucchini coconut, Italian wedding, mushroom barley with greens and beans, chicken tortilla, vegetarian split pea, lentil with smoked turkey sausage, and my wife’s favorite—curried carrot. My wife loves it when I bring soups home to her.

My favorite? It’s tough to choose, but probably the vegetarian roasted beet bisque.

Jessica is a New Yorker who has adopted Hamden as her hometown. Although her soups are well worth seeking out, they may also come to you. Check out her website, thesoupgirl.com, to find out what locations sell her soups, what soups are scheduled, where she will be appearing, or how you can arrange to have soups delivered to you.

I leave you with a photographic tribute to The Soup Girl. Our Soup Girl!