Deadpool
Simply Zoup in the Deadpool
After just a year and a half, Simply Zoup enters the deadpool. A letter in their window reads,
"To all SIMPLY ZOUP patrons and friends,
With bit of sadness & regrets we have to cease operation. On behalf of the staff's [sic] and management, we would like to thank all who have supported us over the last 18 months.
We are proud and hold our heads high.
The immediate future is unclear, but SIMPLY ZOUP could possibly rise again."
I never went in because I'm not one to buy soup, but sometimes smelled soup wafting out the door. Small with no seating area, it served up sandwiches, salads, and a large changing variety of soups.
Victim of the recession? Maybe. I just hope that they don't replace it with yet another sushi restaurant, shwarma/falafel joint, cheap shoe store or head shop. The landlord of a building a few blocks south on Yonge at Gloucester where a UPS store stood until recently had the right idea: Wanda's Belgian Waffles is opening their second Toronto location there (the first opened last year on Yonge just north of Dundas next to the HMV).
What would you like to see in that space?
***
Writing and photos by Andrea Toole
Discussion
18 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
damn it
i loved their chili
this place was awesome, clean well priced, fresh ingredients
It is a sad, sad day. I will forever miss the Lobster Bisque.
With the Deadpool, could someone who actually frequents these joints write the article. Simply Zoup had 2 seating areas and has been closed for almost a month now. This reeks like a site-traffic grab, which is fine as long as the facts are right.
I would like to see another location for Reggie's Old Fashioned Sandwiches there.
I'd hardly say it was reasonably priced for soup. And it was an environmental nightmare as far as takeout was concerned.
i used to eat there until i got food poisoning from the tuna panini. the lobster bisque was good, though.
Sorry. I offered to write it because I saw that it had closed. You're right. If someone else had written it and I was reading it I'd think the same thing.
I found Reggie's disappointing and over-rated. The duck in the Duck Confit & Brie was cold, the roast beef wasn't flavourful enough and the poutine was inedible. I had high hopes for the place. I might give it a second chance to prove me wrong.
Maybe advertising/marketing would have helped - even this article doesn't tell me W[here]TF it is...useless post.
Maybe you should petition Soup Market (selling Soup Nutzie soups) to open. They just opened a 2nd location in MetroCentre.
Went once and had a very average meal for a very pricey bill. Not reasonable at all.
It is a useless post isn't it? I mean, they didn't even have the nerve to give you the location of a now-defunct business. I mean, for someone who claims to be born and raised in Toronto, I can totally understand how you would have no idea where to find this place - if it still existed - even if you walked a few blocks north of Yonge and Gloucester, as the article states.
Oh Born&RaisedInTO, that kind of attitude may fly in the sticks, but this is Toronto. Grow up.
Simply Zoup is located just south of Bloor and Yonge on the West side just across from the wasteland that will be 1 Bloor East. I read this notice on May 5th when I last tried to pick up my favourite lobster bisque. In my opinion the place seemed busy enough. Sometimes all the seats were taken but never was it empty at lunch. My gut feeling is that it closed for other reasons then just fiscal ones. In any case I'm going to miss it. I hope another soup place rises in its ashes.
My office is in the area and it was a sad day when Simply Zoup closed. The first time I went in, I asked what was in the mulligatawny and Neil (the owner) rattled off the entire list of ingredients by heart... because he'd made it himself, apparently! When a couple of my colleagues first found it was closed on May 5, they saw two of the girls who worked there reading the notice on the door and then walking away shaking their heads... not a good sign. I sincerely hope they (and any others) were compensated, and I hope the owners learn from whatever mistakes they made.
i think it has very little to do with the recession.. it has to do with our small population base.. i always wonder how small businesses, esp restaurants, even in the highest traffic area in downtown core..where the city is virtually dead after office hours..weather is too cold to enjoy eating in the patio.. so many restauranats with huge but empty patio...during my trip to asia.. food court was packed with people even 9 or 10p on a regular day.. we would never see that in canada, except maybe in some chinese malls
If you thought the soup here was tasty, you probably eat what's labeled "Knoor" or "Campbell's" on a regular basis and this was a step up for you.
Me, a soup snob? No. Much better tasting soup to be had at Daniel & Daniel, Urban Herbivore or Whole Foods; all under $5 a bowl.
that's what i was just thinking ... this is such old news.
this place has been closed for at least 2 months!
Reggie's SUCKS.
Plus, the staff are potatoes.
Total idiots.