One of the perfect meals for autumn is soup. Working out of the delicious ice cream parlor, The Chocolate Moose on Walnut Street, is Darn Good Soup, which has 71 different types of soups and around 10 options each day.
The menu has two permanent offerings: the chicken tortilla soup and the lentil spinach soup, with the other soups on rotation. The day I went, the alternative offerings included black bean chorizo, carrot ginger, mulligatawny, smashed pumpkin, sweet potato coconut, curry cauliflower, twice baked potato and zucchini pesto.
Personally, I think having a rotating array of soup flavors is a brilliant marketing strategy. You realistically would only want to order one soup on your visit; you can order a 12-ounce small or a 16-ounce large soup and also take it to-go if you want. And even if you visit pretty frequently, there will almost always be a new flavor you can try.
Darn Good Soup also prides itself on having a soup option for anyone, regardless of dietary restrictions. The menu always has at least one dairy free, one gluten free and two vegan soup options every day.
You can order the soups at the same service counter you would order any of the sweet treats at The Chocolate Moose, allowing you to mix and match the broths with drinks and shakes. I ordered a small mulligatawny and smashed pumpkin soups, though I was tempted to try them all.
Even for the smaller size option, I thought the portion was a great meal, especially because the soup comes with a piece of bread and some crackers for dipping. I did order two of the soups for my meal, but I took most of the smashed pumpkin home. A meat-based soup like the mulligatawny was $9.25 and a vegetarian soup like the smashed pumpkin was $7.75, both for the 12-ounce option. So, if you’re trying to get a cheap meal, one of the veggie-based soups would be a great choice.
Mulligatawny is a soup that combines British and Indian flavors in a curry-infused chicken and cream broth. This soup was a standout for me. It had shredded chicken, chopped carrots and mushrooms mixed in a thick broth. The flavors reminded me of the filling of a chicken pot pie, with a bit of a curry edge. As far as chicken soups go, I much preferred these flavors to a traditional chicken noodle soup or even chicken tortilla soup. If this is on the menu when you visit, give it a try.
The smashed pumpkin soup, however, didn’t impress me. First of all, the consistency of the soup made it seem like a warm pumpkin smoothie — thick and grainy — which I didn’t enjoy. The flavors themselves were fine, just a bit unexpected. I don’t eat many pumpkin-flavored foods that aren’t sweet, so having a pumpkin soup with savory herbs like thyme and sage just didn’t feel right for my palette. If you enjoy herby and gourd flavors, give this one a try, even if it wasn’t for me.
I have heard good things about their other soups from chef Salamon Mathews of Cardinal Spirits. The distillery is currently serving Darn Good Soups’ chicken tortilla and lentil spinach soups. The soup shop also has a location in Nashville, Indiana, inside that town's location of The Chocolate Moose.
If you’re craving soup this autumn, I think you should consider Darn Good Soup, as long as you know what kinds of soup you like going in.
