SEATTLE — In mid-winter, in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, they have a saying:
"It's not the end of the world until we run out of soup,” said John Wahlke, chef at Fremont Mischief’s Distillery.
Restaurants here band together to defeat these dark days with 'Soupocalypse'.
"Everyone loves soup. You can't hate soup, when it's cold out, that comfort feeling, it's nice,” Wahlke said.
"Honestly, soup is my favorite thing to eat. It's my favorite thing,” said Tammy Saengsathian, manager of Kaosamai Thai Restaurant.
"Soup is just, if God made anything better, he kept it to himself!” laughed Paul Shanrock, owner of Dreamland.
"Soupocalypse is how we survive the dreary end of January or early February,” said Phillip Kaine, assistant GM of Dreamland Bar and Diner.
John Whalke invented Soupocalypse during the pandemic, when "Everyone was bored, and cold and not doing anything fun for a year,” he said.
Soup fans grab a passport and tour the world of soups in Fremont, getting stamps at participating restaurants, like Dreamland, where Italian wedding soup and Pozole never had a more spectacular setting. Here, you can slurp soup next to a bubbling tiger fountain, in a disco ball hallway, or in front of a giant Cher mural.
"We've got plenty of places for you to eat soup,” Shanrock said.
At another soup stop, Kaosamai Thai Restaurant, soup’s always on. Some specialties include: Tom Yum - hot and sour soup with chicken. Tom Kai - with coconut milk, turmeric and tofu. Wonton soup with housemade wontons and barbecued pork. And a roast duck noodle soup, Just a sampling of their soup menu. Manager Tammy Saengsathian says the ease and versatility of soup makes it ubiquitous fare in Thailand.
"In Thai cuisine there's a lot of street food vendors so it's just easy to have the big pot of soup, the noodles, all your protein choices and just mix it into a bowl and just have one soup bowl,” Saengsathian said.
'Soupocalypse' is a true melting pot - more than a dozen restaurants, ranging from Caribbean to Mexican to Soul Food, put something on simmer for it.
"Every cuisine has some type of soup, some type of liquified deliciousness,” Saengsathian said.
John Wahlke has one goal for this souper celebration:
"What I’d really like to see is other neighborhoods catch onto this, and maybe do Soupocalypse in other neighborhoods, I think that would be fun. A Seattle-wide Soupocalypse,” he laughed. “That’s a lotta soup.”
Soupocalypse 2024 is January 25 - 28th in Seattle's Fremont Neighborhood. Pick up a passport at any of the participating restaurants, eat soup, get stamps, and if you fill your passport, you can redeem it for swag (or more soup!) at Fremont Mischief.
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