rotating soups

[Mr. Delicious]

I make about 10 different soups in the restaurant, basically whatever we feel like making whichever day. Is it wrong to not have certain soups on monday, tuesday..... It is starting to annoy me the phone calls every morning "what is your soup today?" But everything is from scratch and waste is not an option. I usually make about 8 gallons of soup every other day, and try to have 2 different choices but it all depends on weather, by that i mean whether we sell 5 cups or 100 cups over lunch, any advice?

[boagman]

  Mr. Delicious said:

I make about 10 different soups in the restaurant, basically whatever we feel like making whichever day.  Is it wrong to not have certain soups on monday, tuesday.....  It is starting to annoy me the phone calls every morning "what is your soup today?"  But everything is from scratch and waste is not an option.  I usually make about 8 gallons of soup every other day, and try to have 2 different choices but it all depends on weather, by that i mean whether we sell 5 cups or 100 cups over lunch, any advice?

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One local great soup place has four different soups every day, and you never know what they might be on any given day without calling and asking...or at least I don't. If there is a method to their selections, I don't know about it, because believe me: if I knew when they were going to have muligatawney, I'd be there.

Another great soup place has three soups every day, but they have a weekly rotation. There's almost always (but *not* always) a tomato basil mascarpone, and two others that seem to just sort of be whatever they decide on. All of their soup choices are vegetarian, which might bother an avowed meatatarian like me, were they not *fantastic* soups with some terrific flavors. I don't miss the meat in this case.

I'm afraid that, without becoming "Chicken Noodle Tuesday", there's no good way around the inquiries. The weekly rotation could be a good idea if it appeals, but honestly, the best idea might be to have some kind of recording or prompt when people call such as "Thank you for calling XXXXX Cafe. To hear today's soups and/or specials, press 1."

Or, alternately, you could post the day's soup, or the soup schedule, on your website if you have one.

[Just Jim]

If you don't have a set menu, you will have to deal with the daily inquiries.

You don't have to fully sacrifice your current M.O. though, but you could adjust it.

You could have Clam Chowder Friday, and extend that idea to more or all days of the week.

The more days you do this the harder it'll be to work with what's available as you do now, unless you start offering 3 or more soups a day.

I think Boagman is on the right track, in getting the info out there in a less painful manner.

[Endy']

I don't think you should have to sacrifice your current practices, since you seem to be turning out soup you're proud of. But if people are specifically calling in and asking about your soup that day, it means that at least one of the soups (see boagman's point about mulligatawny) is making a very positive impression. They're saying "you have soup so good that I'm going to make a special trip for it".

[boagman]

  Endy said:

I don't think you should have to sacrifice your current practices, since you seem to be turning out soup you're proud of.  But if people are specifically calling in and asking about your soup that day, it means that at least one of the soups (see boagman's point about mulligatawny) is making a very positive impression.  They're saying "you have soup so good that I'm going to make a special trip for it".

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A bit off-topic, but thanks for the spelling correction on mulligatawny. The place that serves such a wonderful version of it spelled it the way I did in my first post there, and that's how I figured it was spelled. Glad to know the proper spelling, now.

[Toliver]

  Mr. Delicious said:

Is it wrong to not have certain soups on monday, tuesday.....

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As a generic customer I can say that knowing it's a Tuesday and if it's Tuesday you will alwaysl have your Tomato Basil soup, for example, can help me make up my mind whether I will be eating at your restaurant or not on Tuesday.

I know it's boring for you and probably constraining to your chefly talents but if at least one of the soups you offer is always the same on the same day each week, it might lead to customers becoming regulars on specific days.

[Lupinus]

You could always go half and half. Have a soup of the day for every day of the week, and whatever other soups you care to prepare. This way those who really like a particular soup know exactly what day it will be there, and also leaves you a good bit of freedom to do your thing.

[steverino]

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to determine what soup you consistently sell the most of, and make that available every day. Monotonous, yes but customers vote with their wallets. Rotate your other soups on a somewhat regular basis, and keep an eye on what is selling well. Adjust quantities that you prepare, and see how that works for a while.

Just my two cents.

Good luck!

Steve