I always liked Souplantation. While not really a fan of buffets, I , specifically the location in Rancho Cucamonga. It was a shame when .
Now Souplantation is back — sort of.
A startup named , which had been sitting empty nearly four years, in the Thomas Winery Plaza on Foothill Boulevard at Vineyard Avenue.
With endless salads, soups, muffins, focaccia, brownies, yogurt and fruit, Soup ‘n Fresh is attempting to recreate the food, experience and ambiance of its predecessor. It opened Feb. 28 and immediately became a hit.
Social media was abuzz with people driving an hour or more to Rancho Cucamonga, then waiting an hour or more for a seat — something that never happened when Souplantations were everywhere. KCAL, KTLA and KABC all came out for stories.
Who’d have suspected that a salad buffet in the Inland Empire would become a cultural sensation, a 909 version of the “Vanderpump Rules” sandwich shop in West Hollywood?
A month after the opening, Eater LA’s Rebecca Roland visited this “carbon copy” Souplantation, as she called it, writing that during her 90-minute Sunday afternoon wait, some treated the line like a tailgate, bringing sunscreen and fold-out chairs.
after her meal: “Even though nothing will ever truly replace Souplantation, this Dupeplantation was close enough.”
Dupeplantation — ha!
I’d meant to check out Soup ‘n Fresh myself if I ever had a day to kill but kind of forgot the whole thing — until the recent comedy “Thelma” reminded me.
Have you seen it? When the 93-year-old title character has disappeared briefly, two young staffers at a retirement home ask her family if she’d ever gone missing before.
“Only once before. At Souplantation,” her grandson volunteers. “But she was just going back for those little pizza things.”
Her son, noticing the staffers’ blank faces, explains: “It was a buffet restaurant. You could go back for more.” He pauses and says: “I never processed that it was called Souplantation before. That’s weird.”
It was.
(I frantically scribbled these quotes, by the way, in the dark on a slip of paper while at the Laemmle Claremont 5. Also, “Thelma” is fantastic and recommended to all.)
With Souplantation now back in my mind (and on a slip of paper in my pocket), I headed to Soup ‘n Fresh two days later, on July 30, for lunch. When I arrived at 1 p.m., the parking lot was full. I parked in an adjacent lot.
There was a line to get in. Rather than stretch out into the sun along the side of the building, as when Roland visited, the line efficiently tripled back on itself, airport security-style, within stanchions in the shady area outside the entry.
It wasn’t unpleasant. There were about 30 of us, from infants to elders: a solo diner or two like myself, couples from their 20s to their 70s, families with young children.
A boy of 6 wore a tan pirate jacket and matching tricorner hat, paired with green Crocs. Even budding pirates need footwear that breathes. Nearby, a punk couple in their 30s were tattooed up to their chins. They did not seem like the Souplantation type, but here they were.
An employee came out now and then with a clipboard to log the various-sized parties. Even past 1 p.m., the line behind me was growing. But it was also moving. At 1:25 p.m., I was inside.
The interior setup was comfortingly familiar, from the winding salad bar onward to the various food stations. The interior had been remodeled, with white replacing earth tones, but it felt almost exactly like a Souplantation.
Lunch was $16.99. Or $14.99 for seniors, a deal I didn’t notice but would have qualified for. The offerings were about the same as I remember, with a few nips and tucks.
The salad formerly known as Wonton Happiness is now Asian chicken salad. There’s now a Bone Broth Chicken Noodle Soup.
Once seated, near the beverage station, I could take in the dining room.
It was all but full, with tables and booths even in its far reaches being occupied as new customers took seats. People on their feet returned for more food or drink. Employees stopped at tables to remove plates and bowls. Near 2 p.m., the lunch crowd finally began to ebb.
Needless to say, a lot has happened in the world since Souplantation closed at the start of the pandemic. At Soup ‘n Fresh, though, it felt as if we’d all stepped into a time machine and set the dial for 1998, or even early 2020.
It might be that Souplantation was gone just the right amount of time for people to appreciate it, or for a crop of youngsters to wonder what they had missed by never having gone.
A salad buffet, an experience that had always been pleasant but unexceptional, suddenly has a touch of magic.
The rebirth is due to the Lopez family, which ate regularly at the Souplantation in Arcadia until its demise and decided to try to resurrect one location as independent operators, the La Verne Campus Times .
On my way out I left my business card and requested an interview but never heard back. It happens.
For my lunch, I got much of what I used to order, but varied it. A bigger salad, because I eat more salad now. Chicken soup rather than clam chowder. No muffin, no pizza, for carb reasons. One tiny sliver of focaccia for old time’s sake.
And I ended with my traditional dessert: a brownie, smashed at the bottom of a little cup with my spoon, with soft serve on top.
I’m not going to tell you that this was a fantastic meal. Neither was Souplantation. But Soup ‘n Fresh definitely accomplishes what it set out to do, which was to faithfully restore an experience we didn’t know we’d miss.
If an empty retail space comes up next door, someone should open a Blockbuster.
David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, without croutons. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.
