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Simply Soup uses social media to promote itself

Created: 12/15/2009 05:40:38 PM EST

A couple of days a week something like this chirps through my Twitter feed.

"Headed to Market! Today: Asparagus Mushroom, French Onion Soup & Crab Bisque. Yum!"

About 80 other "followers" of @SimplySoupYork also get the same message sent to their computer from owner Kim Gross.

For those not hip to the Twitter trend - and believe me, I've only recently become hip to it myself - Gross also sends an e-mail newsletter twice a week detailing the menu.

She does the same thing on Simply Soup's Facebook page. (Search "Fans of Simply Soup.")

I've yet to see a York County restaurant incorporate social media into its business model quite like this.

With a constantly rotating menu - serving nothing but different "soups of the day" - the social media strategy fits for a restaurant true to its name, Simply Soup.

Gross figures customers might make a special trip if they know she has their favorite soup.

"I hear a lot of people say they heard a tweet about this, and I want to try it," she said. "People started e-mailing and calling . . . about what soups we have, so we started thinking about a better way to help people do their soup shopping."

Perhaps not surprising considering Gross went through a Entrepreneurial Support Alliance program before opening the stand in Central Market earlier this year.

Of course, all the crafty marketing in the world means little if the soup stinks. But so far, I've hardly heard a negative word about Simply Soup.

When I visited recently, I purchased a pint (you can also get a cup or a quart) of Buffalo chicken chili. And since it's a chili, Gross uses a ground chicken that really pops, because it simmers in hot sauce for 40 minutes.

Then she adds canned tomatoes, chicken stock and fresh vegetables often purchased from the market.

Gross describes the result as a "slow burn . . . just enough to put some sweat on your forehead," and I would agree. She didn't go crazy with the hot sauce, but it's there. The soup came with a small cup of shredded mild cheddar cheese - no need for sharp with wing sauce - to sprinkle on top.

I will definitely return to Simply Soup to try things such as crab asparagus, shrimp and sausage gumbo, New England clam chowder and her specialty, mulligatawny made with curried chicken and apples.

I love that last one. It reminds me of another restaurateur who served only soup, the Soup Nazi of "Seinfeld" fame.

He was quite different than Gross, though. More likely to banish customers than draw them in with modern technology. Said Gross: "I wanted to be the nice soup Nazi."

With a Twitter account, of course.

Cheap Eats profiles local restaurants with meals for less than $10. Suggestions are welcome. Reach Wade Malcolm at 771-2101, wmalcolm@ydr.com or on Twitter @YDRCheapEats.