The soup war breaks out in Dover! Restaurants fight for bragging rights, customers
Yes, soup. The dish that has long been relegated to the bottom of the menu is now the star of the show.
Mike Mendez, owner of 2Delicious Restaurant in Dover Township, said local restaurants have been competing in a soup war since early February and the competition heats up as the weeks go by.
The competition began between Greer’s Burger Garage and Taqueria el Camino on February 4, with Taqueria defeating Greer’s in that first round.
“They asked the community who they would like to face the winner. That’s where we (2Delicious) came in, getting more requests for the next round,” said Mendez. “We started putting them on social media a little bit, saying things like, ‘We’ve got some amazing soup recipes in case we get challenged by a neighboring restaurant!’ Taqueria officially challenged us to the next round, where they were defeated.”
Mendez said before this competition, the Moonlight Cafe in Dover had already signed up to be the next competitor. 2Delicious also beat them on February 18. Mendez said the two restaurants sold more than 40 gallons of soup in one weekend.
Although Moonlight didn’t win, she did congratulate 2Delicious on her win.
“It was a great day yesterday. We saw so many new faces! Thanks to everyone who supported us! It was a very close call – 55-51. Congratulations 2Delicious,” they posted on their Facebook page.
“Since then, we’ve had a lot of restaurants trying to get in on the action and make it to the next round. It’s a one-on-one, single-elimination competition,” Méndez said, adding that this competition it’s a way to strengthen the community. support and commitment for local restaurants.
After beating the Moonlight Cafe, the 2Delicious crew competed against Sal’s Pizza, an Italian restaurant in Dover Township, and the friendly banter was strong leading up to that battle round.
“See you Saturday 2Delicious, we’ll bring you extra Kleenex strength for your tears,” Sal’s Pizza posted on its Facebook page.
Sal has served an Italian chicken soup, made at home by the owner’s wife.
But 2Delicious wasn’t going down without a fight, and they came with chicken corn soup. 2Delicious, which is located just two doors down from Sal’s, responded to the Facebook taunts with a joke that the Italian restaurant used canned soup.
In the end, Sal’s won, with 56 votes to 2Delicious’s 38. Mendez said the two restaurants sold more than 300 orders of soup.
“This was especially fun because we’ve been friends with Sal and his family for over 15 years,” Mendez said. “The best neighbor to win!”
Mendez said the friendly competition will continue as long as restaurants sign up to compete, and he believes they will because the friendly soup war has been a big driver of business.
“The owner of the Taqueria warned us to be ready when we accepted the challenge. He said the soup competition between the Taqueria and Greer’s Burger Garage drew the most diners the two restaurants had seen in months,” Mendez said. “I wasn’t exaggerating. The competition [with Moonlight Cafe’] brought so many people, we reached a record number of orders. We ran out of soup four times.”
How it works?
So how does a restaurant compete in a soup war? Mendez said each of the two contending restaurants have punch cards. When a customer visits the restaurants and orders soup, a hole is punched in each restaurant’s card. They then take to Facebook to vote for their favorite soup by uploading a picture of the card with the name of the restaurant they think is the winner.
The Buy Local Coalition adds up the votes.
Sal’s will now compete against Joe StrEAT Cafe in West Manchester Township on April 1st.
This article originally appeared in the York Daily Record: Soup war in Dover, PA! Restaurants fight for bragging rights