As the days get shorter and the air turns nippy, what arguably guarantees comfort is a hot bowl of soup with a side of crusty bread.
Just in time for the season that sees iced brews give way to pumpkin spice lattes, the Record has crafted a list that will have you reaching for a pepper shaker and an oval spoon.
From beef barley to wicked Thai and a soothing borscht, New Westminster restaurants are offering a bevy of options that will have you slip into a trench coat and enjoy a bowl of goodness.
Annie Hill Café
Located inside the Dunwood Place, a seniors' housing complex (901 Colborne St.), Annie Hill café is the city's little-known spot for all-day breakfast and soup.
"I offer low sodium bone broth homemade soups daily," said Lisa Girardi, who has been running the café since March 2022.
Besides hosting holiday dinners and weekend barbecues, the eatery flaunts a soup-heavy menu — with beef barley, cabbage roll, and ham and pea being the number one sellers, as per Girardi. Also on the list are authentic borscht and schi soups (made with sauerkraut, pork and bay leaves) made by Diana Stuart, the only other employee at the café.
In total, the wee café brings out more than a dozen varieties of soups every month, said Girardi.
Columbia Street Sandwich Company
At this downtown eatery (550 Columbia St.) that offers takeout, catering and buffet services, you can choose from about 60 different varieties of soups.
Besides the more common ones such as the cheesy beef noodle and Thai chicken curry, the restaurant has on its menu unique options such as sausage kale and potato, chipotle chicken chowder, dill orzo, yellow split pea, sausage corn chowder, West African peanut, coconut lime chickpea and more.
All the soups are made in-house, from scratch, by Melissa Ling, who co-owns the company along with Samantha Furber.
"We offer a wide variety of soups, trying to ensure there’s something for everyone’s taste and/or dietary restrictions," said Furber, adding that they sell an average of 35 to 40 litres of soup every day during winter.
The demand is so much so that "all of the staff here have become soup connoisseurs, and everyone has their favourites," added Furber.
"Mine is the cheesy beef noodle. I can eat that day or night, hot or cold," she said.
Greens and Beans Deli
The long-standing Sapperton eatery offers its customers both free sparkling rings and a scrumptious list of soups to choose from.
The restaurant (143 E Columbia St.) features six different kinds of soups every day, said co-owner Leona Green.
The list is a combination of chicken noodle, vegetable, minestrone, chicken mulligatawny, baked potato, Russian borscht, french onion, roasted tomato and garlic, smoked salmon chowder, corn chowder, vegetable beef, cabbage roll soup and cream of "almost anything."
But what’s permanent on the list is the wicked Thai chicken — "or people cry," said Green.
Kozak Ukrainian Eatery
The eatery, which brings Ukrainian korovays (wedding breads), kolaches (Christmas bread) and paskas (traditional Easter bread) to New West, is also the spot to sit down and savour what’s "hands down the most signature Ukrainian dish" — the borscht.
The deep-red, thick, sweet and sour soup is made with beets and a variety of vegetables and served with a side of sourdough bread, a dollop of Smetana sour cream and garlic, as per the restauarant's menu. Customers can order a pork-based one, or one with beans.
Besides that quintessential Ukrainian meal, the bakery (444 6th St.) also offers Mama’s Chicken Soup — made with a homemade-style broth "just as Mama makes" and served with glaushkies or dumplings.
And for those who want a taste of a soup-stew straight from the Carpathian mountains, there is Carpathian bograch goulyash, which includes beef, pork, bacon, vegetables, a dash of smoked paprika and other spices.
Gastronomia Italia
It's only a matter of time before the Italian eatery which makes Romano-style pizzas stocks up on a selection of soups. Since it’s exclusively a fall feature at the store, soup lovers will have to wait for the temperatures to further dip before the comfort food shows up at the downtown grocery and deli (601 Columbia St.).
"Once the fall season starts, we will have both frozen and hot soups," the noshery confirmed.
A look back at their 2022 winter offerings is a reminder of what’s to come: generous servings of tomato, potato leek, winter vegetable, minestrone and chicken noodle soups.
All the soups, as chef and owner Delbert Cirfera told the Record are made in Italian style.
The ingredients are kept to a minimum and the cooking time is no more than 15 minutes.
And when you order a tomato soup, it will be, in fact, the "pappa al pomodoro" — one that's made by cooking the bread in the tomato soup.
