Seinfeld Declassified Episode 25: Was there a man behind the soup?

So again, there isn’t that much to declassify in this episode but I simply could not pass up the opportunity to cover one of the most iconic episodes in the series’ history. So the episode follows the core four as they try (and often fail) to procure delicious soup from a temperamental vendor known solely to NYC residents as the soup nazi. So is there any truth to the legend that a man would turn people away from his soup stand for being uncouth?

Well, there certainly seems to be. Legend has it the real-life inspiration for this character was a man by the name of Al Yeganeh and, yes, he did turn away people who would hold up the line. It seems Seinfeld and many of the crew members used to frequent his establishment & this is what led to the creation of this episode. The weird thing is in the aftermath, Al was pretty irate, claiming they had ruined his business despite massive evidence to the contrary (there was a surge in customers after this episode first aired on TV). He later demanded an apology from Jerry but did not deem it to be sincere enough.

Despite his fury at the episode & his banning of any Seinfeld references in his restaurant and marketing material, his store, the original soup man, has flourished into a franchise with locations in multiple states, though yelp does seem to indicate the quality of the soup has declined over the years (it’s now down to 2.5 stars). Here’s where the story where gets pretty insane, though. A few years back, the CFO of the company got nine months in prison for income tax evasion which led to all the stores being sold off.

They have since been able to bounce back and open a new location in a kiosk in times square. But you can also order it online so you can enjoy their soup no matter where you are in the world (and the best part is you don’t have to worry about being denied soup due to pissing off the cashier). As for the original restaurant, well, that’s been closed for almost 15 years now but legend has it if you go over to W. 55th street, you can still see the sign on the awning to this day. I guess nothing ever replaced it. And it seems Al himself is still around to this day so we wish him many more years filled with success and, of course, soup.