Souper Salad (stylized as Souper!Salad!) is an American restaurant

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

based in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

. It is an

all-you-can-eat An all-you-can-eat restaurant (AYCE) is a type of restaurant in which a fixed price is charged for entry, after which diners may consume as much food as they wish. All-you-can-eat establishments are frequently buffets. Buffets The all-you-can- ...

buffet A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve ...

restaurant serving fresh salads, made-from-scratch soups, homemade breads, and more. All locations are in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, with the majority located in Texas. The chain is privately owned and has been in operation since 1978. As of October 2022, the chain had 3 locations.

History

In 1978, the first Souper Salad was opened by Ray Barshick in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. Barshick subsequently opened locations all across Texas and then began to expand to the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. In 2009, the company began selling franchises. By the middle of 2008, it had grown to 151 stores in 17 states before declining to 80 stores at the end of 2010 as a result of the long recession that began in 2008 causing fewer people to dine at restaurants. In 2011, the parent corporation (SSI Holding Group Corp.) filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

due to poor performance resulting from recession. From July 2011 to the September bankruptcy filing, at least 25 locations were closed, leaving 56 locations in operation. In 2012, Souper Salad was acquired by LNC Ventures, which was owned by Dan and Jackie Hernandez. By late 2013, the chain was down to 45 locations. In 2014, the company, with 37 locations, was acquired by Brix Holdings, LLC., which is based in Dallas. After the acquisition, Dan Hernandez remained president of Souper Salad until 2016.

Locations

The company operates restaurants in ten cities in Texas. Franchised locations are in Texas,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, and

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. The first location in

South Texas South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 4.96 ...

opened in

McAllen McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend ...

in October 2016. This location is the first of a new contemporary design and a kitchen with

induction cooking Induction cooking is performed using direct induction heating of cooking vessels, rather than relying on indirect radiation, convection, or thermal conduction. Induction cooking allows high power and very rapid increases in temperature to be ach ...

. One location in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

is located in a former

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

bank building designed by architect

Wenceslao Sarmiento Wenceslao Alfonso Sarmiento (September 28, 1922 – 24 November 2013), also known as W.A. Sarmiento, was a Peruvian-born American modernist architect. Sarmiento studied in various locations in South America, for eighteen months in the of ...

. The building, originally home to a

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk (botany), trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' ...

Western Savings and Loan Western Savings and Loan was an American financial institution founded by the Driggs family. The Driggs family came to Arizona in 1921 after trading everything they owned—a bank, drugstore, hotel, and wheat farm in Driggs, Idaho—for ...

outside the

Metrocenter MetroCentre, Metro Centre, MetroCenter, or Metro Center may refer to: City centers * Metro Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, the original, colonial settlement of the City of Springfield, Massachusetts Halls * Metro Hall, a complex of three buil ...

mall, was listed as one of the "10 Coolest Buildings in Metro Phoenix" by ''

Phoenix New Times ''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue ...

'' in 2014 and an "architectural marvel" by AZfamily.com in 2016. When built in 1975, it was

futuristic The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

or mid-century modern with a ribbed conical tower clearly visible from the adjacent

Interstate 17 Interstate 17 (I-17) is a north–south Interstate Highway entirely within the US state of Arizona. I-17's southern terminus lies in Phoenix, at I-10, and its northern terminus is in Flagstaff, at Milton Road north of I-40. Most of I-17 ...

Format

Souper Salad provides prepared salads and a variety of salad ingredients and dressings at a

self-serve Self-service is the practice of serving oneself, usually when making purchases. Aside from Automated Teller Machines, which are not limited to banks, and customer-operated supermarket check-out, labor-saving of which has been described as self ...

salad bar A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates. Most salad bars provide lettuce, chopped tomatoes, assorted raw, sliced vegeta ...

that can be in length. Four different soups are provided daily, as well as breadsticks, a selection of muffins, pizza, baked potatoes, pastas, tacos. Desserts include fresh and canned fruits, strawberry shortcake, pudding, brownies, and soft serve ice cream. Specific menu items change daily and seasonally. The company says the food is made fresh daily in each store (without use of centralized offsite facilities) and free of

trans-fats Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids, or trans fatty acids, is a type of unsaturated fat that naturally occurs in small amounts in meat and milk fat. It became widely produced as an unintentional byproduct in the industrial pro ...

since 2007. It also provides

gluten-free A gluten-free diet (GFD) is a nutritional plan that strictly excludes gluten, which is a mixture of proteins found in wheat (and all of its species and hybrids, such as spelt, kamut, and triticale), as well as barley, rye, and oats. The inclus ...

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

options. It has offered a variety of seafood options including fish soups, salads, and tacos for the

Lenten Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

season. Sandwiches were tested in 2008 in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. With the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in 2020, all of the restaurants went to cafeteria style service.

Marketing

Customers who joined the ''Souper Fresh Club'' by providing personal information and an email address receive discount coupons electronically as well as a coupon for an annual free birthday meal. The program was later changed such that purchases earn "points" towards rewards as well as a coupon for a discounted birthday meal. A study of

casual dining Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...

chains by the consumer intelligence firm Market Force Information in 2013 ranked Souper Salad as the first in the buffet category. The study of over 7000 consumers praised the chain for the healthiness of its food.

Litigation

In 2014, the company settled a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lawsuit brought on by one employee alleging violation of the

Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppres ...

. The suit claimed that this one tipped worker was not fairly paid for required duties such as cleaning, stocking, and other general activities that did not directly generate customer tips, thus having the effect of working for less than the

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

during the portions of shift spent performing such duties. The

US Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

says employees should not be classified as tip-only employees if they perform non-tipped work more than 20% of the time. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The suit asked for minimum wage differential compensation, as well as attorney's fees, and interest.

LNC Ventures

Dan and Jackie Hernandez were 2002 graduates from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

when they began frequenting an

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Souper Salad. They operated ten Subway franchises in Laredo and

Cotulla Cotulla ( ) is a city in and the county seat of La Salle County, Texas, United States. Its population was 3,718 as of the 2020 census. History Immigrant Joseph Cotulla, who was reared in Silesia, then a part of Prussia, migrated to the Unite ...

until 2010 when they were sold to another franchisee based out of Houston. They then purchased a Souper Salad in

and opened a second location in 2011. Their company, LNC Ventures later bought the chain after the 2011 bankruptcy for approximately $4 million. LNC divested many company stores to franchise-owned locations, with 22 of 45 locations being franchises by July 2013.

Parent

Brix Holdings, LLC. acquired Souper Salad in 2014. Brix Holdings operates several other restaurant chains, including RedBrick Pizza, Red Mango Cafe, Smoothie Factory Juice Bar, and Greenz. Brix determined that reducing store size from by 50% made stores more profitable.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Souper Salad (Restaurant) Restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1978 2012 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions Regional restaurant chains in the United States Buffet restaurants 1978 establishments in Texas Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 Companies based in Dallas