Five soups have been on the Hale & Hearty menu since day one. Chicken Vegetable (served with noodles, couscous, or plain) is the most popular of that bunch. There are 10 to 15 daily soup specials. A few are replaced every day. Soup specials reappear every four to six weeks. The most popular daily special has always been Tomato Cheddar. Other offerings range from Ginger Carrot Artichoke to Spanish Lentil with Chorizo to Chicken Pot Pie.

Customer demand led Jacobs to publish a daily list of available soups on his Web site. The list is also sent out via e-mail. Customers can also vote for their favorite soups and are then notified when the soups appear on the menu. “We’ve had 4,000 people vote on the Web site. With more than 100 soups on the list, Tomato Cheddar alone garners about 3 percent of the vote.”

Hale & Hearty accepts orders through its Web site for delivery, which makes up 15 percent of total sales. Of the 85 percent who come into the store, four out of five take their soup to go. The stores are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The busiest locations serve 1,000 customers on a good day, Jacobs says. The soups are sold in four sizes, from small to family-size. The average check is $7.