The restaurant originated in France, and the first one opened in 1764 when a man known simply as Boulanger, the owner of a tavern, came up with a soup of mutton feet in a whiteish liquid, and, surprisingly, people wanted to eat it. He called the dish a divin restorante, or “divine restorative,” and the place came to be known by the dish.
There’s more to the story, involving union caterers, the French court system and a protest by footless lambs everywhere (OK, I made that last part up), but suffice it to say that Boulanger’s soup had a lasting impact, if less for its recipe than for being at the root of the restaurant business.
No lamb feet at MiZuppa, but this tiny, cramped eatery in a strip mall understands what it means to restore. The soup isn’t just on at MiZuppa, it’s right on, and it’s served up fast and efficiently by people who are passionate about soup.
This is the fourth MiZuppa (it means “my soup” in Italian) in Colorado; the first was opened in Breckenridge two years ago by Doug and Mary Schwartz. Doug had been a chef in Europe, particularly Burgundy, for many years, but he and his wife, Mary, fell in love with Colorado during a vacation. They moved to Keystone nearly a decade ago, and Doug took over the culinary education department at the Colorado Mountain College in Keystone.
For years, though, they envisioned an alternative to inexpensive fast food, and came up with the idea of a soup kitchen that would be modeled on a fast-food setup. When the original in Breckenridge took off, they opened locations in Frisco and Vail, and now they have decided to franchise the operation. Randy Romano bought one, and a few months ago opened a MiZuppa in Denver, in a small space at East Mississippi Avenue and South Colorado Boulevard.
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So far, this one’s a success, too. For good reason: Soup is good food, and MiZuppa makes good soup.
Don’t expect thin, salty creations with soggy veggies and alphabet-shaped noodles. And you’d never know that the eatery is part of a mini-chain, because everything is made fresh on premises, including the miniature loaves of wheat, white and pumpernickel bread (75 cents).
Each day, the two-person kitchen staff follows the Schwartz recipes for thick, hearty soups that pull from world-eats ingredients and taste as though the grandmothers of a dozen nations made them that morning. Most of the brews are more like stews, packed with chunky ingredients, and all are packed with flavor, from a simple fresh tomato to a stick-to-your-ribs pot roast.
The menu is pretty easy: You can get soup in three sizes, 12, 16 and 32 ounce, and they are categorized as regular or premium. No pay at the pump here, though; instead, you order at the counter while getting a good look at the goods, which sit near the cash register on a steam table. Alone, the soups cost from $3.50 to $7.95, with the most expensive being a 32-ounce premium, such as the saffron-tinged risotto, chicken-based and sweet, floating with pieces of carrot.
You can also get the soups as part of a meal. A 12-ounce regular soup – such as the packed chicken noodle, chockful of falling-apart meat, curly egg noodles, carrots and celery – with a demi-loaf and a cookie runs $4.75, while the same-sized soup and one of their simple sandwiches (turkey with Swiss, chicken salad) costs $5.75.
The soup can also come with a salad, such as their chicken, which is dotted with fresh parsley and thyme, or the creamy tuna. Skip the crab, or more accurately, Krab, because there are enough onions in there to clear an auditorium.
But, really, you don’t need anything but the soup. Ricotta-topped lasagne brings a bowl of red sauce so thick it almost holds up the large slices of zucchini, curly egg noodles and pearl onions, while gumbo puts a credible sausage (if it’s andouille, it’s a mild one) in with rice and tomatoes and the Creole triumvirate of green bell peppers, onions and celery. Sour creamy beef stroganoff with pearl onions and baby mushrooms puts non-soup versions to shame, and if I could eat only one elk chili again in my life, this one, with fat, meaty pieces of elk and kidney beans so soft they melt into the liquid, this would be it.
The logistics of MiZuppa could be better, however. Bottled juices and sodas and desserts sit in a display case at the beginning of the line, which means you either have to stand there holding a bunch of items while ordering soup, or go back and forth to the tables. And while the outside patio adds some seats for warm weather, now that the cool weather has hit and people are really starting to think of soup, it’s going to get crowded in there.
But that won’t stop them from coming in. Everyone needs a little pick-me-up, and MiZuppa restores my faith in quality.
MiZuppa
Address: 4085 E. Mississippi Ave.
Phone: 720-524-9640
Style: American
Food: ***(out of four)
Service: **(out of four)
Atmosphere: **(out of four)
Price: Items from $2 to $6
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday
Credit cards: All major
Number of visits: Two
Parking: Parking lot
Noise: Quiet
Wheelchairs: Yes
Smoking: No
