Arts is Life

The Best Of Everything

Slurping Up Success

For 6 years, Zoup! has been a zouper bowl winner.

r

IN

2/17
2005

56

ads, sandwiches, smoothies,
ew things are better
soup and salad or sandwich
than a nice cup or bowl
combos, etc.
of hot soup to warm
In the first year, about
the innards on a cold and blus-
100,000
folks visited Zoup!,
tery wintry day.
in
Southfield,
their first
But why not soup as a main
restaurant ... The count now
entree, and all year long, too,
for Eric and David's six dining
they asked themselves?
spots has passed the 2 million
Good question, and they
DAN NY
mark.
soon provided the answer ...
RAS KIN
Their big favorite of chick-
Nothing.
Se nior
en pot pie soup has already hit
And so was born here one of
Colu mnist
more than 11 million ounces
the biggest revelations in din-
total sold, or more than
ing ... That soup to so many
700,000 16-ounce bowls, and is the
people is just as good and filling as other
only soup left from the beginning as an
main dishes at lunch or dinner times.
everyday, all year-round stalwart.
On this premise, two enterprising
The Zoup! restaurants are open seven
young men, Eric Ersher and cousin
days a week for lunch and dinner, carry-
David Elias, opened their first Zoup!
out and catering ... An absence of cater-
restaurant, which is still there, on
ing
at the beginning has grown to large
Northwestern Highway off 12 Mile
business
for corporate and social events
Road in Southfield's Franklin Plaza.
(bar mitzvahs, etc.)
This was in 1998 ... after a year of
Eric's aunt, Susan Ersher, has been
experimenting and creating from their
with the fellows since day one and is
large kitchen site at the Detroit Eastern
now their roaming manager between all
Market, rented for their other business
of wholesale spices
and the making of
soups for other
restaurants.
Today, as business
immediately took
off in a fast, upward
swing, there are
now nine Zoups! in
Metro Detroit,
including
Southfield, Troy
(two locations),
Pontiac, .Detroit,
Northville,
Dearborn, Shelby
Township, Ann
Arbor and two
Zoup! Founders Eric Ersher and David Elias
more outstare ...
Eric and David have
since sold their soup
the restaurants ... The number of six
and spice company to Michigan Foods.
employees drawing pay checks at the
The name is still Zoup! but could
opening has ballooned to more than
now even add the words 'And More!" ...
100.
That original list of 15 soups has grown
Soup wasn't the only thing they had
to a whopping number of more than
when opening six years ago, there were
200, including New Orleans favorites
also cookies ... From a small amount
like shrimp and crawfish etouffe, fire-
daily has sprung more than 300,000
roasted tomato bisque, lobster bisque,
sold since then.
mushroom. bisque, etc. ... Most are on a
Zoup! varieties of soup each day
daily rotation of about 12 soups avail-
include
vegetarian, low fat, dairy free,
able along with the everyday regulars.
among
concoctions
that boggle the
Now, as if to celebrate their six years
mind and taste so good ... homemade
in the soup business, has also come sal-

without preservatives or MSG ... Many
of them are seldom, if ever, seen any-
where else ... Chicken or steak fajita,
ginger chicken, roasted vegetable beef,
Sicilian pi77a, Jamaica Bay gumbo, a
combo of shrimp, asparagus and dill,
etc.
Eric's dad, the late Ed Ersher, and
David's pop, the late Hanley Elias, were
brothers-in-law and business partners ...
going back to the late 1970s when they
had the clever Sneaky Treats diet bakery
in Southfield.
With the soup comes sourdough,
multi-grain dough or low-carb French ...
There are no waitresses, the concept
including fast simplicity ... Customers
look on the lighted board, get samples if
desired of the huge daily variety, make
their selections and take the tray to a
nearby table.
Old-fashioned chicken soup? ... Of
course ... Ask mothers everywhere how
else you get rid of a cold ... But original
soup recipes, too ... chowders, gumbos,
stews, bean, chilies, shrimp, hot and
sour, Cajun, Thai, Moroccan, fresh
mushroom, etc., with names and ingre-
dients representative from all points of
the globe.
Eric Ersher and David Elias have
taken soup out of the ordinary menu
listing and put it into an exalted place ...
They have proven that soup in any form
can be much more than just a lovely side
item ... Zoup! has given soup what it
certainly deserves ... its own identity.
RESTAURANT BEING opened by
Peter Bershaj will not be called Gateway
II ... Name will be the Sky Deli, Bar &
Restaurant at the former location of
Tirami-Su Italian dining spot on
Orchard Lake Road, north of 13 Mile,
in Farmington Hills ... Public opening is
scheduled for Tuesday, March 8, with a
touch of the former Darbys in one of -
Sky Deli's new employees, Rhonda
Kerner, daughter of the late Bernie
Kerner, owner Sam Boesky's general
manager and stepson.

NEW NAME, NEW LOCATION,

almost twice as much seating, etc., and
the awaited happening has finally
arrived. George's Honey Tree, with its
smart-looking interior decor, is being
greeted by happy regulars who have one
of their favorite family restaurants back.
Now relocated on Northwestern
Highway, just east of Orchard Lake
Road in West Bloomfield, in the former
In-Style Furniture spot ... on the corner
next to Empire Doors, Home Appliance
Mart and Dunham's Discount Sports ...
George's Honey Tree is open again in all
its new brightness.
THERE ARE SOME folks like
Phyllis Tyner who has played golf a

thousand years and still waits for some-
thing that even resembles a hole-in-one.
Then there are people like Dennis
Horwitz who won't settle for just one
perfect 300 score in bowling ... going
out recently and rolling his second one
in the Brotherhood Eddie Jacobsen
B'nai Kith Bowling League.
HARD TO IMAGINE the difference
since Artie Oliverio has been back at the
scene of his greatest culinary accom-
plishments, 21 years ago, at Maria's on
Walnut Lake Road, west of Inkster, in
West Bloomfield. Artie's culinary cre-
ations have the place hopping again with
his own imaginative Italian dishes along
with innovations of standard favorites.
FLAMES FLICKERED from his
saucepan as Zoran Smolcic, host at
Brasserie Zinc in West Bloomfield, flam-
beed Bananas Foster aided by wife,
Ondina ... Nimrod Rosenthal, commu-
nity relations director for city of
Southfield, danced up a storm with wife,
Varda, Rosemary Bannon, Susan Harold
and Deenie Urben, daughter of the late
Rabbi Richard C. Hertz.
It was the annual shindig by Fanclub
Arts Foundation, headed by Executive
Director John Bloom, and again the
usual sellout.
There was John here, there, every-
where you looked ... and a guy in a tux
that looked like a can of paint had artis-
tically fell on him, a gent wearing a red
suit and tie with red ruby lips all over it,
a fellow in a bright yellow sports jacket
and a gal wearing satin boxes in the FAF
Artrageous 2005 theme of wearable art.
Lil Aron telling of her new show corn-
ing in April to the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit; Rick
Brode, head of Franklin Athletic Club in
Southfield, answering health questions;
and so many more enjoying dancing,
music, auctions, fashion show, enter-
tainment, art and accessory exhibits,
food and desserts galore by the many
restaurants in a never-ending parade
of gala fun.
CONGRATS ... to Alan Muskovitz
on his 50th birthday, celebrated with
table for 20 at Angelo's Bistro, West
Bloomfield.

QUESTION & ANSWER DEPT.
... Q. "Do you know whether Boston

Market on Orchard Lake Road
intends to open again or if the loca-
tion is for sale?" ... Harriet Leach.
A. The West Bloomfield location
will be used for another Boston
Market concept called Chipotle
Mexican Grill, says real estate agent
Steve Goren. ❑

Danny Raskin's e-mail address is
dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net.