HUMBOLDT SOUP CO. TO CLOSE AFTER A DECADE
Eureka chef says economic conditions forced the closure
Humboldt Soup Company announced Sunday on Facebook the 10-year-old restaurant that served nutritious eats in a fast-food style was closing after March 29.
The owner cited economic changes in Eureka and said the math no longer worked out to keep running the business.
The restaurant, opened in November 2014 by chef Christine Silver, focused on seasonal produce at an inexpensive price.
“At one point, we were moving 600 to 1,000 pounds of produce from local farms, putting it into food and out to customers in a week's time,” she said in a phone interview with the Times-Standard on Tuesday.
Silver, who moved from Redding, looked at the old Church's Chicken on Myrtle and saw an opportunity to make healthy food accessible — she thought it was unfortunate people had to sit down and pay a premium to eat a salad.
But like many restaurants, Silver said the COVID19 pandemic greatly affected the business. Everything got more expensive; insurance, sourcing local food, utilities and labor. Plus, other conditions meant the restaurant was getting an increasingly smaller slice of the pie.
Silver said competition for the business increased during a recent revolution for local food trucks. She said business from tourists dropped too after a cluster of chain businesses opened along Broadway, including In-N-Out, around 2020.
According to reporting by the Lost Coast Outpost, Silver and other restaurant owners pushed back on the Eureka City Council approving the development in 2018. She said this complex now absorbs the share of tourists who would have otherwise stopped by a local business to get something to eat.
She took a hard look at spreadsheets a few months ago, and with all the uncertainty, she couldn't see the math working out.
“I'm a resident of Eureka and I think that the community is very strong and very amazing. But the way the growth is happening right now is it makes it very challenging to try to compete and survive,” she said.
Economic conditions trickling from the pandemic have affected other restaurants she's opened. Humboldt Soup Company is the first of a total of four restaurants she's opened in Eureka. Last year, Silver was in the midst of a plan to rotate her cast of restaurants to other locations. They were planning on moving 6th and E, a burger and fries restaurant she opened with a partner, to where the Hood is. They were also planning to reopen Delish on 5th, a deli/kitchen retail store/charcuterie business she opened in 2018 that has been closed for a spell, at 6th and E. But the signs of the economy were clear. The $30,000 investment made in June to reopen 6th and E was looking more like a gamble.
“Looking where the economy was going. I had to say no, I can't. I'm not going to make that investment now. And I don't regret that at all because the fourth quarter was not good for anyone,” she said.
Now, Silver operates the Ecos cafe at the Sequoia Park Zoo and the Hood, which she owns with Michael Ammon, who started working with her in a restaurant she owned in Redding and then followed her to Humboldt County.
She emphasized that the Humboldt Soup Company is her baby, and the decision to close was extremely difficult.
Important to her is the connections with the staff, customers and local farmers. She said after 30 years in the industry, she still looks forward to going to work every day wearing a fast food headset.
Now what's important is getting her staff other jobs. She said she's always employed great staff that she's focused on developing, and is seeing how many positions can be moved into other restaurants she owns but expects a couple will need other jobs.
Overall, the heavy competition and tight margins of today's restaurant world aren't really what Silver is looking for right now. She said she's in a position in her life where she's ready to slow things down, coasting after 30 years in the industry. She'd like to spend more time with her grandchildren in Redding.
“I have this fantasy of being the school lunch lady. Honestly, that's my retirement plan,” she said.
For those interested in getting a bowl of soup in the days before the restaurant closes, March 29 will be the last chance. The business is also available to lease, with more information on the company's Facebook page.