POTTSTOWN PA – When the thermometer takes a dive, as is expected through Thursday (Feb. 20, 2025), the best comfort food available may be a warming bowl of soup.
High temperatures through Thursday are predicted to range up to no more than 26 degrees, the National Weather Service says. Conditions will get dramatically colder at night, with low temperatures dropping to 17. Then on Friday (Feb. 21), the warmth (if you can call it that) bumps up slightly to 34 degrees.
Given those numbers, there may be no better time than within coming days to grab a spoon and sit down with something tasty. Locally here’s a list of four soup sources to explore.
At Grumpy’s Handcarved Sandwiches
Grumpy’s Handcarved Sandwiches, 137 E. High St., prompted such thoughts this week as its “soup subscription” plan got under way. Subscribers started signing up in mid-January, its website reports, for a fixed-price fee of weekly soups-by-the-quart. Grumpy’s scratch-made batches of liquid joy first became available for customer pick-ups Friday (Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day).
On its subscription menu over a period of four weeks are seafood bisque, chicken and wild rice, tomato-crab bisque, and beef-mushroom barley. Inquiries about the subscription, as well as requests for the restaurant’s once-weekly regular menu updates, can be e-mailed to grumpyssandwiches24@gmail.com.
Those who visit the restaurant regularly likely know Chef Gene “Grumpy” Dugan creates soups daily. The website claims his choices depend in part on his mood … and whatever “good finds he has for the week.” Grumpy’s recent creations, its Facebook page says, include Italian wedding soup, cheeseburger soup, mushroom bisque, turkey noodle, and ham and cabbage.
Grumpy’s is open Tuesday through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
At Shorty’s Sunflower Café
Shorty’s Sunflower Café, 1494 N. Charlotte St., is a home of intriguing flavor profiles: the combinations of aroma, taste, and texture that define a dish. Recent soups, as reported on its Facebook page, have included jerk-sweet potato, potato-bacon, lobster-parsnip, and potato-fennel.
Shorty’s offers several ways to learn what’s next due from its kitchen. Patrons can take time daily to click into its website menu, which features a list of latest or new offerings. They also can check its Facebook posts listing similar information. Or do it the easy way, and sign up for the restaurant’s mailing list. Find the form for it on the website.
The restaurant is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
At Bucktown Grille
Don’t be fooled by its size, or the fact that it’s on wheels. Bucktown Grille, 2088 Pottstown Pike (at the corner of Route 100 and Cadmus Road), prepares foods from scratch and cooks to order. There are a variety of dining options on its menu, and its current list of soups reflect that diversity.
Topping its choices to fill a bowl are chicken corn chowder. Bucktown also offers a “healthy vegetable soup” which relies in part on “house-made cashew milk (that is) keto-friendly, gluten-free, (and) dairy-free.” Rounding out the list are a New England clam chowder, and wonton soup.
Although not on the menu now, diners who commented earlier on its Yelp review website raved about Bucktown’s cauliflower soup, crab bisque, and shrimp bisque.
Bucktown Grille is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
At Vesta Kitchen
Vesta Kitchen in the Suburbia Shopping Center, 50 Glocker Way, opened about a year ago. It offers foods created exclusively with “local, sustainable, responsibly sourced” ingredients. Vesta buys goods it needs directly from local farmers and other suppliers.
Its current menu includes turkey corn soup, chicken corn soup, squash soup (listed although temporarily unavailable), vegetable stock, and Lindenhof Farm chicken bone broth. Vesta Kitchen products can be ordered in advance online, and later picked up at the store.
Vesta Kitchen is open Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
So Where’s Your Favorite?
Pottstown Foodie wants suggestions on other independently owned (not chain) restaurants in the Greater Pottstown area that offer great soups. Send an e-mail to travelswiththepost@gmail.com with suggestions for inclusion in a future article, because the nasty winter weather could hold out for awhile longer.
Top photo by Piotr Miazga on Unsplash, used under license
Bottom photo by Samee Anderson on Unsplash, used under license
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