Soup is a passion for chefs and patrons of Detroit's Russell Street Deli
Published on January 29, 2010 - 7:13 am
by SYLVIA RECTOR-FREE PRESS RESTAURANT CRITIC
From neighborhood diners to the city's most expensive restaurants, you can hardly find a menu that doesn't offer soup -- and for a very simple reason: Almost everyone enjoys it.
But there are some places -- like Detroit's Russell Street Deli -- and some people -- like Feli Lessanework -- who take soup and soup love to an entirely new level.
Lessanework, 54, of West Bloomfield has gone to Russell Street for soup at lunch five days a week for the past 12 years.
"I am a soup person," says Lessanework, who works nearby. "Soup is just good, and a cup of soup from them is like a meal. It's always hot and good. ... It warms me up inside, and it's a nice comfort food."
She's hardly the only customer who makes Russell Street soups a lunchtime habit. The little restaurant has only 60 seats, yet it sells 180 gallons of soup a week in winter and 140 a week in summer, says co-owner and chief soup-maker Ben Hall, 32.
Some is sold through the restaurant's catering service, some through Avalon International Breads in Midtown and some from a small stand the restaurant operates in Eastern Market on Saturday mornings.
But the most, by far, is sold a bowl at a time to carry-out customers and to dine-in guests -- like Lessanework -- who share a table with whomever happens to get seated beside them.
The communal tables and crowded room either suit you or they don't. But they've always been part of the lively scene at Russell Street, long known for its hearty sandwiches and creative breakfast menu.
As a soup spot, though, Russell Street stands out for its wide, constantly changing variety of daily soups.
Hall offers six to 10 kinds a day, all made from scratch from his repertoire of more than 100 recipes.
Unlike most places, the shop doesn't have a signature soup that it offers every day. But customers can count on at least two vegetarian and even vegan choices and at least one variety of chicken, made with Hall's classic, house-made stock.
Since he and business partner Jason Murphy bought the restaurant three years ago, they've dropped its commercial soup bases and now use only from-scratch stocks made with fresh, unprocessed ingredients, Hall said.
The chicken stock, for example, is simmered for nine hours in an 80-quart pot and then strained, chilled and skimmed, so it's full of flavor but not fat.
Some of his most popular varieties are classics like cream of mushroom, clam chowder, beef barley and corn chowder.
But die-hard soup fans also love the more unusual ones such as Tuscan potato, carrot-ginger, curried Indian mulligatawny and, one of Hall's favorites, the Portuguese potato-and-kale soup called caldo verde.
Besides its great flavor and variety, the other appealing thing about soup is its affordable price.
"We've seen a huge spike since the economy started going down," said Hall. "Everyone's trying to spend less. I see people who used to order a sandwich and a cup of soup switch to a bowl of soup to save money." The restaurant charges just $3.50 per cup or $3.95 per bowl.
But Lessanework says her love of a steaming bowl of soup -- and Russell Street's especially -- isn't about cost.
"Even if you are not talking about value, it's just a good lunch. And it makes you feel good inside," she added.
Contact SYLVIA RECTOR: 313-222-5026 or srector@freepress.com
Russell Street Deli
2465 Russell St.
In Eastern Market, Detroit
7 a.m.-3p.m. Mon.-Fri.,
8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat.
313-567-2900
