Vegan Soup Stand

Who: VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

What: Soup on the street

Where: The corner of 20th and Valencia, San Francisco, Calif.

When: February 9, 2011

Why: Who doesn't want soup?

The Scoop: Sometimes, your friends come up with some pretty great ideas. San Francisco has a fairly bustling underground food scene, and the soup stands are definitely the new taco trucks, which I'm pretty sure were the new cupcakes a week or so ago. How quickly one man's gated gas station becomes another man's place of business! After a few months of living in the Mission District, honorary VN staffer Peter Ryan noticed people setting up little soup stands on various corners, and realized that a) he makes excellent soup and b) can any neighborhood ever really have enough awesome vegan soup? Hence, SF Relais was born! Evidently, a relais is the French equivalent of a truck stop, but better, because it's French. Travelers can stop in for a hearty meal on the cheap and then get back on the road. So, Peter took out the middle man (aka, the stop) and took to the streets (literally) with his killer soup.

Peter and his now-you-see-it-now-you-don't set up

I stopped by last night to see how the soup du nuit was going. After a slow start, Peter quickly started selling cup after cup of his vegan clam chowdah. The night was pretty chilly (OK, pretty chilly for SF), so I could definitely see the curb appeal of a warm bowl of awesome soup. After only two hours, the soup was gone, the stand was gone, and the corner remained in it's place, as though nothing had happened at all.

Lindsay and Hermann, a couple satisfied customers

Here's to finding something delicious on every corner! It's what I call a soup-er good idea.