The City of Pittsburgh will get its first helping of Zoup! on March 9. The new restaurant is located at 1137 Freeport Road in the newly renovated Fox Chapel Plaza, near RIDC Park.
Pittsburgh’s first Zoup!—the ninth in Pennsylvania—will celebrate its grand opening on Thursday, March 9, with an official ribbon cutting ceremony beginning at 10:45 a.m. Members of the O’Hara Township Council and Zoup! VIPs will also be in attendance.
“We’re excited to open our community-based restaurant and to start serving up some really, really great soup,” says husband-and-wife franchisees Richard and Jackie Cagley. “Zoup! has a very loyal following across the country, and we’re proud to introduce our award-winning recipes to the people of Pittsburgh.”
On March 8, the day before its official grand opening, Zoup! will host a private fundraiser for members of the Lauri Ann West Community Center—a non-profit organization that enriches lives and strengthens the community by providing a welcoming place for community engagement. 100 percent of the event’s proceeds will benefit the organization.
Zoup! features hundreds of award-winning soup recipes with 12 rotating daily varieties, including low-fat, low-cal, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free options, all served with a hunk of freshly baked bread. Customer favorites include Chicken Potpie, Lobster Bisque and Vegetarian Bounty. The menu also features made-to-order salads and sandwiches, and all menu items are available in convenient catering sizes for groups of 10 or more.
To help customers select from the daily soups, sampling is encouraged. And, for those looking to save time, a daily soup menu and online ordering are available. Customers also can sign up online to receive a daily email menu.
“We created Zoup! after discovering that really good soup is hard to find,” says Eric Ersher, Zoup!’s founder and CEO. “Also, in talking to people, it became clear that there’s something special about soup and the way it elicits thoughts of family, well-being and comfort for many people. We strive to offer authentic, hand-crafted soups that are as good—and as ‘feel-good’—as the homemade soups our mothers and grandmothers used to make.”
As an established brand throughout the United States and Canada—with more than 100 restaurants in 19 states/provinces—Zoup! is targeting Pennsylvania as part of an overall expansion strategy.
The Cagleys’ new Zoup! will employ 24 team members and will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. It will join the area’s first Zoup! location in Canonsburg, which opened in April 2014.
