How to Know What Soup We Have Before You Drive Out

The most common question we get on the phone is four words long. What is the soup?

It is a fair thing to call about. We make a different soup every day at the deli counter, we serve it until 4:00 pm or until it runs out, and it does run out. Driving to Belgrade for a soup that sold out at 2:15 is nobody's idea of a good afternoon.

So we put it on a page.

Check before you drive

The Soup Of The Day page shows what is on today. That is the whole job of the page. Look before you leave, and you will know whether today is the day for the one you have been waiting on.

It is the page to bookmark if you have a regular. People do. There are soups that bring the same faces through the door within an hour of opening, and there are days the pot is empty well before four.

Why it sells out

Because we make one batch. That is the trade we decided on a long time ago and we have never really wanted to undo it.

A kitchen that makes a single soup each day can make it the way it should be made, with what is good that week, and stop when it is gone. A kitchen that never runs out is making something else, in a quantity that has stopped being about the soup. Running out is the cost of the first approach, and it is a cost we would rather pay than the other one.

What people carry out with it

Soup travels better with company. Most people picking up a quart grab something to go alongside, and the two that move fastest are the two you would guess.

Between those two and whatever is in the pot, you have dinner handled without cooking, which in the middle of a working week is the entire point.

The soup you can take home for later

There is a second answer to the sold-out problem, and it lives in the freezer.

We keep frozen soups in the store, several varieties at a time, for the people who want soup on a Tuesday in three weeks rather than soup right now. It solves the timing problem that the daily pot cannot, and it means a drive out here can stock the freezer instead of covering one lunch.

We are going to give the frozen soups their own post, with what we keep and what goes best with each. Ask at the counter until then, since what is in the freezer moves.

Questions we get

What time does the soup run out? There is no reliable answer. Some days it is there at closing and some days it is gone by mid-afternoon. Checking the page is faster than guessing.

Can I order soup ahead? Our deli menu and ordering run through the Deli Menu page, which is the fastest way to have lunch waiting when you get here.

Do you do soup for a crowd? Call the store and ask. Quantities beyond a quart or two are worth a conversation rather than a guess, and we would rather plan for you than send you home short.

Is there soup in the summer? Every day of the year. The soup does not stop in July, and some of the best ones show up when nobody is expecting them.

Where to find us

Chalet Market of Montana, 6410 Jackrabbit Ln, Belgrade, MT 59714. Call us at (406) 388-4687, or see what is on today before you come.