soup shack

A Little Soup Shack on the Harbor By: Gail Blakely, February 28, 2012 GENE M. MARCHAND/ENTERPRISE - Kevin Andrade and his wife Maria at the Soup Shack at the head of Falmouth Harbor. It seems that every place I go, people tell me about the Soup Shack, the latest food truck to grace the Cape. After meeting its owner, Kevin Andrade, at a local farmers market, I decided to pay the Soup Shack a visit at its daytime location on Falmouth Harbor Andrade is no stranger to the food industry, having started as a dishwasher in Connecticut at age 19 and moving to the Cape to open the original Carbo’s in Mashpee. He went on to open the Kansas City Steakhouse at the Holiday Inn in Falmouth, and then spent 12 years with the British Beer Company. After a short stint as a partner in the East Falmouth Sweet Tomatoes, Andrade is again on his own, with his very own Soup Shack in tow. The Soup Shack idea germinated last fall when Andrade got a telephone call from Stan and Cynthia Terrell, who run the Green Harvest Organic Farmers Market at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds. "[Stan] asked me if I would be interested in making some organic soups, using their vegetables. I didn't quite know what to expect—the first day I sold just four cups of soup all day. But after that, people seemed to really like the soups I make, and I started thinking about getting a trailer," Andrade said. Soup n' sandwich With trailer parked at the entrance to Falmouth Harbor on Robbins Road (off of Scranton Avenue), the Soup Shack business is really taking off. In addition to soups, Andrade offers hot sandwiches, including breakfast sandwiches from 8 to 11 AM every day. Best bets are the grilled cheese with caramelized onion and tomato; the Turkey Gobbler Wrap, composed of thinly sliced turkey in a flour tortilla with cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, and cranberry mayonnaise; or the corned beef sandwich on marble rye with Swiss cheese. It's the soups that I have been hearing about, so I asked Kevin how he gets his ideas. "I just come up with them," he replied with a grin. "My kale soup is from my ex-mother-in-law, Caroline. It's an old Cape Verdean recipe, and I think I'm the last one she showed before she died. She never measured anything, but I just watched her and got the basics. Now I think it's one of the most popular soups that I sell!" He likes to try new soups and make changes in what he currently offers. "But there are some I know I have to leave alone: my apple-butternut bisque, for example, and my chowder. I get my clams from The Fish Market in Teaticket, and I've learned to thicken it with a roux made with organic butter and corn flour—that way it's gluten-free, which a lot of people seem to appreciate these days." Ditto for his vegetarian vegetable soup. "That's mushrooms, acorn and butternut squash, parsnips, turnips and greens, all simmered in their own natural juices. I try to really cut back on salt and pepper and use a lot of fresh herbs for flavor.” The Soup Shack is open from 8 AM until 2 PM, though Andrade says you can probably catch him until about 3 PM. Soups are available by the cup or the quart.