Soupergirl ladles from Takoma Park restaurant

There are at least 200, maybe 300, soup recipes in Marilyn Polon’s files. Those are the ones that made the cut from the 600 concoctions that she and daughter Sara have whipped up over the past three years.

In that time, the pair has delivered hundreds of orders to homes and offices throughout the Washington area. Now those customers can head over to Takoma Park, where the Polons have opened the first Soupergirl restaurant at 314 Carroll St. NW.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

Personal Post

(Jeffrey MacMillan/For Capital Business) - The restaurant, located across from the Takoma Metro, serves soup for take-out or sit-in.

Open six days a week, the store features all of the quirky soups that have made the Soupergirl a local favorite, including Jamaican Me Crazy Sweet Potato Soup with coconut milk and dark rum. All of the soups, priced at $4.25 a cup to $9.75 for a “souper bowl,” are vegan, certified kosher and made from scratch.

Customers still can place online orders for delivery, but the new location, with its large kitchen, will allow for an increase in service, said Sara Polon, who started the company out of her basement in Cleveland Park. The former stand-up comedian started Soupergirl after reading up on the local food movement, which argues that buying food from local producers is better for the environment and economy.

Polon considered several food ventures, including homemade ice cream, which admittedly she “only knew how to eat.” A friend, she said, pointed out that her mom is “always making amazing soup.”

The idea struck a chord, and soon Sara and mother Marilyn Polon were slaving over a hot stove, testing mixtures and churning out batch after batch of soup.

“I didn’t have any idea what I was getting into,” Marilyn said. “But I’m having a great time coming up with new recipes and, of course, working with Sara.”

There are times when the women get on each other’s nerves, like any mother and daughter, but Sara couldn’t imagine Soupergirl without “Soupermom.”

“I have the attention span of a gnat ... and she is like ‘focus on this task; let’s finish this first.’ She grounds me,” Sara said, sitting next to her mom at the store.

Marilyn credits Sara with “all of the business development. I’m not a business person, but she has that business sense. She’s learned it herself and I’m pretty amazed.”

When the Polons started out, they posted two soups a week on the Web site and took orders up to Thursday for delivery the following week. The farmers supplying the ingredients, Sara explained, needed the extra turnaround time. She was nervous the system would scare off customers, but orders kept coming.

Demand was so great that the operation moved out of her basement into the back kitchen of the Sabores restaurant in Northwest, where the Polons prepared some 350 quarts of soup a week. To serve more customers, the Polons partnered with nine local businesses, such as Java Shack in Arlington and Balance Studio in Bethesda, to use their stores as pickup locations. The business quickly became profitable — the women would not disclose revenue.

Word of their business reached a retail landlord in Takoma Park, who approached the Polons to fill his vacant storefront. Though Sara Polon was content with their setup, the location (across from the Metrorail station), community and friendly landlord won her over.

Since opening at the beginning of the month, the Polons estimate they’re serving 75 to 100 customers at lunch and well over 200 for dinner. Leftovers are donated to District nonprofit Martha’s Table.