"This is actually my favorite flavor," said Marcus, the lucky recipient of the 10,000th delivery (including a one-of-a-kind commemorative bowl) and a "soupscriber" for over a year. "It's super thick and it's made with love."
"It's goopy and awesome, like stew. I love it," agreed delivery woman Jen Bishop, who delivers soup around the city with the help of a bike trailer.
The two co-founders of SoupCycle taught themselves how to make a cheap, transportable soup in order to launch the business, utilizing mostly organic and often local ingredients to whip up 100 gallons of simple soups a week. The crew has long overgrown its space in the commercial kitchen of a SE Portland church. "Our first week we made soup for seven people in the same space we now many soup for 300," says co-founder Jed Lazar. He began to worry last spring when customers started dropping the service faster than new ones signed up. "Many people told me they had lost their jobs or lost hours and were going on a 'peanut butter and jelly diet,'" says Lazar. Over the summer, though, the business rebounded and is now expanding its delivery area to North Portland and outer East Portland. "We're taking over Campbell's territory," laughs Lazar.
