Soup's On at Collins Brothers Chowder Company
A steady stream of customers kept coming in from the cold at Collins Brothers Chowder Company on Temple Street in Nashua. All were focused on the daily soups listed above co-owner Dan Largy’s head. The storefront is narrow with a few chairs for waiting customers and wire shelving holding soup making supplies and fresh bread from Piantadosi.
Largy and his brother Clifton (former Nashua chief of police), who cooks the soup along with Robert Hughes, have been serving up hot soup in the cool months for several years. When they took over the operation, they also wholesaled soup to the Boston area, but recently stopped. Dan says, “You can’t believe the traffic headaches of driving down there.”
For now the retail is business enough. “There is usually a line out of here on Fridays,” say Dan. It would be easy to call him the Soup Nazi, but Dan seems to know most customers by their first name, some of their problems and can usually anticipate the soup they will order. He tallies the order in his head and says “Order up!” in a loud theatrical voice. Clif steps around the corner, picks up the order and takes it back to the kitchen to fill containers from the huge pots simmering on the stove.
Soup is made on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and served Thursday though Friday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Their soup stock is not made from scratch as they use prepared chicken or beef bases, but all the vegetables are cut and prepped in back. The base gives the soup plenty of seasoning and the clientele seems addicted to their favorite varieties. Choices range from clam chowder to beef barley to Italian wedding, with a few surprise specials on Friday. Ssssh — “This is Nashua’s best-kept secret” was voiced by many who stepped up for soup that day. If the economy keeps nose-diving, soup will certainly become the order of the day for many more.
Collins Brothers Chowder Company
59 Temple St., Nashua, (603) 883-2347
Eight ounces of soup is $4.99 and a quart is $7.99
