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Susan Huff launches The Soup Shop to provide comfort food, support local vendors and more.
Susan Huff loves people, and she loves food, so to her, feeding her community is not just a job, it’s a passion. Susan is the owner and proprietor of The Soup Shop, set to open in Copper Hill in May.
At 60 years old, Susan is an expert at reinventing herself, but she hasn’t strayed far from her core: food. The daughter of a Swiss chef who cooked at the Johnson White House, Susan owned the first organic restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her career since then has taken several paths, but it led her back to food service in 2021 when she began offering soup meetups in the Roanoke/Floyd area.
In the fall of 2021, Susan started looking for a location for a brick-and-mortar business. She found a house at 7360 Floyd Hwy N, Copper Hill and began renovations, relying on her husband, John C. Bell, 70, for architectural advice.
Susan’s menu will expand, but will still focus on soup. Why soup? Soup is a comfort food, and Susan’s soups are in demand, even in the hottest months. Soup is nourishing, easy to transport, and will keep a long time in the freezer.
For Susan, though, soup is a creative medium. She crafts hers from clean, seasonal ingredients she sources locally, with each batch tasting slightly different from the previous batch.
The Soup Shop will also support other creators in the community, offering space to vendors selling products from locally made bread, cheese and preserves to soaps, note cards and books.
Some enthusiastic customers encouraged Susan to open more than one location, but she does “not want to be like Starbucks.” She wants to feed her community and support local farmers and artists, because, she says, “artists feed your soul.”
Learn more, see the menu and order your soup online at floydsoup.com.
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