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By Heather Muh
RED BANK – There is no better time for a good bowl of soup than in the cool autumn months, and apparently there is no better place to get it than at a little eatery named That Hot Dog Place.
Nestled in the alley next to the Dublin House in the heart of Red Bank, That Hot Dog Place attracts hungry customers from miles around. However, it isn’t the hot dogs that keep people lining up at owner Gary Sable’s door, it’s the soups.
In 1995 Sable, who has since earned the nickname “The Soupmeister,” saw an empty store in the alley and “decided to give it a shot.” Since then, his shot has become a success.
“I came to Red Bank and no one was really making soups,” Sable said. “I started off making two to three soups a day and it just caught on.” Sable said his business really exploded after a feature was done on him in ***ITALThe Two River Times***END a number of years ago.
That Hot Dog Place offers three to five freshly made soups a day. While Sable’s personal favorite is beef vegetable – the first soup he ever made as a kid – the soups that are most popular with his customers are chicken tortilla, pot pie, Italian wedding, spicy sausage and “good old chicken noodle.”
Things change a little in the fall when Sable said his sales rise by about 50 percent during the colder months.
“Cold weather brings ‘em in,” he said. Spicy soups and cream soups rise in popularity during the fall, along with chicken noodle to fight off back-to-school colds.
Sable gets to his store around 6 a.m. every day to prepare his soups. Each pot of soup holds about 6 gallons and is sometimes gone as early at 12:30 p.m. The soups go quickly, but Sable said, his customers are pretty understanding.
Fortunately, when the soups run out, Sable has other items on his menu. As the name hints, That Hot Dog Place also offers sandwiches and hot dogs with a variety of toppings, but the soups account for about 50 to 60 percent of the business.
Preston Hansen, who works in Red Bank, buys his lunch from Sable’s store about four times a week.
“If I could make a living off hot dogs I would’ve been out of here 10 years ago,” Sable joked. The hot dogs, however, are not what it’s all about. “I just like making soups more than anything else,” he said.
Sable took culinary classes at Johnson and Wales, and has loved making soup ever since.
“I tell people all the time, if you don’t love your job, find a new one,” Sable said. “You’re going to be doing it a long time.”
That Hot Dog Place is located at 30 Monmouth St. It is hidden in the alley next to the Dublin House, but once soup-lovers find it they tend to keep coming back. According to Sable, his busiest hours are between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. when a line can sometimes be seen going out his door and down the alley.
The Soupmeister clearly knows what he’s doing.
“I like the reaction I get from people, it’s like an ego thing,” Sable said with a chuckle. “People love my soup. That’s pretty cool.”
