LONDON (1010 WINS) -- New York chef Al Yeganeh, pictured above, was the inspiration for "Seinfeld'``s brusque "Soup Nazi'' character, and now he is taking his recipes across the pond.
Yeganeh and his partners plan to open 50 Original SoupMan franchises in Britain during the next year, Original SoupMan CEO John Bello said Wednesday. The company also hopes to open outlets in Germany, Italy and Japan.
Yeganeh's takeout restaurant, Soup Kitchen International, became a midtown Manhattan tourist attraction after the 1995 "Seinfeld'' episode in which Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer have their soup orders abruptly cut off by a gruff man with a thick mustache.
Employees at the international locations will not yell the character's trademark "No soup for you!'' at customers, but will enforce Yeganeh's strict rules -- "Have your money ready!'' and "Move to the extreme left after ordering!''
"We think it will be an exciting concept that people in England will embrace,'' said Bello, a former National Football League executive who helped introduce American football to Britain in the 1980s. "If they can follow Mr. Bean around, I think they'll understand Al and his personality. Al's an artist and very particular, kinda like a van Gogh. His work is clearly soup. His life is his soup.''
Bello said the first British franchises would be in central London, Manchester and Birmingham.
Original SoupMan currently has 20 franchises in North America, and hopes to expand to 1,000.
The London outlets will offer soups from seafood bisque and lentil to chilled gazpacho, and there are plans to package the product to sell in grocery stores, Bello said.
When new locations open, Yeganeh donates money to a hunger charity in the area, his spokesman John Rarrick said.
The original store opened in 1984 and closed in April 2004 to prepare for the franchise expansion, Rarrick said.
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