“No soup for you!” This may just be the most iconic phrase from the TV show Seinfeld, from the season 7 episode titled “The Soup Nazi.” In fact, this is one of the first episodes that probably springs to mind when you think about the show.
You may be aware that “the Soup Nazi” was based on a real person who operated a real restaurant. Where can you find that Soup Man in New York City? In this post, we will give you the location and the history so you can check it out for yourself.
The History of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi/Soup Man
It all started with a restaurant located at 259 West 55th Street called “Soup Kitchen International.”
Accounts are somewhat confusing, but it seems a real person named Ali “Al” Yeganeh ran this location as far back as the 80s. He then ended up creating a chain of restaurants called “The Original Soup Man” (sometimes spelled “The Original Soupman”). The restaurant located at 259-A West 55th Street was open from 1984 to 2004. It eventually reopened, still under Yeganeh’s ownership, in 2010. At that time, its name changed to The Original Soup Man, in keeping with the other restaurants in the chain.
Yeganeh’s real life personality and business practices were the inspiration behind the fictitious “Soup Nazi” character in the Seinfeld episode. An article in The New Yorker once quoted Yeganeh explaining, “I tell you, I hate to work with the public. They treat me like a slave. My philosophy is: The customer is always wrong and I’m always right … Whoever follows [my rules] I treat very well. My regular customers don’t say anything. They are very intelligent and well educated. They know I’m just trying to move the line.”
The post also noted that sometimes Yeganeh would refuse to serve customers who complained or held up the line, and that customers even advised each other as to how to behave in order to get served.
Despite the fact that the Seinfeld episode must have brought Yeganeh lots of attention (and likely new business), he claimed that the episode had “ruined” him, and he hated it when people called him the “Soup Nazi.”
Writer Spike Feresten once talked about how he returned to Soup Kitchen International alongside Jerry Seinfeld and some other team members not long after the episode came out. According to Feresten, Yeganeh was very unhappy to see them. After he ranted at them, Seinfeld gave “the most sarcastic apology I’ve ever seen anyone give,” as Feresten called it. Yeganeh kicked them out in response, even shouting the iconic line, “No soup for you” as he did.
Where to Find the Original Soup Kitchen in NYC
You will still find the Original Soup Kitchen operating at its original location:
This places it just southwest of Central Park, close to the Museum of Arts and Design.
We would not be surprised if the name changes yet again at some point in the future, but at the time of this writing, it is “The Original Soup Kitchen.”
You’ll find customer reviews stating that the soups are warm, delicious and filling—excellent at any time of year, but particularly satisfying on a cold winter day.
We Can Take You to the Original Soup Kitchen on Your Tour
After your Central Park Pedicab Tour, we can drop you off at the Original Soup Kitchen. During checkout, please indicate that you would like us to drop you off there (you can write “Original Soup Kitchen, “Soup Man,” or “Soup Nazi”—we’ll know what you are talking about).
We look forward to taking you to see all the sights, including the famous Soup Man restaurant from your favorite classic sitcom!