Making Soup the Star

I don't know what it's been like around your office, but the SFR newsroom has felt a bit like a plague zone during the last few weeks. Half the staff was down with the kind of cold that makes you want to pull the covers over your head and wake up when it's over.

Yet, sometimes you've got to grab the DayQuil, drink a cup of tea and buck up, little cowgirl. When that happens, soup is essential.

My suggestion: Ask someone who loves you to fetch a to-go bowl from Back Street Bistro (513 Camino de los Marquez, 982-3500). Feeling better? Get down there with that same friend and buy her lunch.

Often relegated to the opening course to serve as a stepping slurp toward the pinnacle of the meal, the lowly soup bowl can be marginalized. Not here. In this unassuming restaurant tucked into a row of commercial buildings off Cordova Road, soup is the star.

With a coincidence that must be a numerologist's wet dream, restaurateur David Jacoby will celebrate 21 years in business on March 21. First located at the spot where you'll now find Counter Culture Café on Baca Street, Jacoby moved to the Marquez space in 1998. While his menu changes daily to follow the seasons, one standard always tops the list: a rich and creamy Hungarian mushroom flavored with paprika and onions.

It's not some ancestral secret recipe passed down through the family, though; Jacoby found it in Moosewood Cookbook, a 1970s classic vegetarian manifesto by Mollie Katzen that still graces many a hippie kitchen today.

His longtime crowdpleaser is a satisfying distraction from the chile-laden hot bowls you find in most restaurants in Santa Fe. And you don't even miss the peppers or really notice there's no meat—it's that good. The mushrooms are thick and chewy, the onions soft and pungent. I usually can't resist picking up the bowl to get at the last mouthful.

A recent visit to Back Street conjured up all the reasons why this is one of the city's not-so-well-kept secrets. Wildly busy at lunchtime during the winter months and less so when the weather is nice, parking here is a bit of an art form. But patience pays off. Even if you can't score one of the intimate two-tops, you can slide up next to complete strangers or fellow Santa Feseños at the community table, and the service is typically snappy.

Part of the reason is that Jacoby himself is almost always in the kitchen. A tall, snow-haired figure who's been told repeatedly that he resembles Steve Martin or, now that they are both older, Harrison Ford, he hustles with the air of authority and accountability that makes him immediately recognizable as the boss.

"This place is what it is because I'm here," the 58-year-old says during an interview while he's cooking on a Saturday morning.

Raised in Manhattan, he delivered meat to restaurants early on weekend mornings, riding shotgun in the car with his dad. It seems like he's been in the game his whole life.

"My dad was in the business of delivering food, and my mother cooked every day, so I was used to having food made by my mother every night, every day," he says. "And when I left home, I just, you know, had to have it, so I started to cook."

The bistro makes six soups every day: two creams, a vegan and a veggie and two soups with meat, priced around $4.50 for a cup and $6.50 for a bowl. And the rest of the menu is diverse enough to meet your other cravings, including pastrami and turkey sandwiches and a variety of salads, my favorite of which is the tortellini, lightly dressed with a pesto vinaigrette and topped with piñón, black olives and shredded parmesan ($5.50 for a half, $7.25 a whole).

Then there's the homemade pie. Just like the soup, you'll find seasonal faves in the dessert case that should be snatched up when available. Right now, that means get your hands on the impossibly silky Kahlúa cream pie ($3.95). Besting your average French silk creation by several degrees, this version incorporates the coffee-flavored rum into its smooth flavor. Flakes of dark chocolate rest on top of the whipped cream, and it's all seated on a thick almond-and-flour crust that stays put from fork to mouth. In the summer, make that Key lime pie.

Bring me the bill. I'm on the road to recovery.

At a Glance
Open: Weekdays 10 am-2:30 pm, Saturdays 11 am-2 pm
Best Bet: Cup of Hungarian mushroom with a half tortellini salad for $10.25
Heads up: Cash only

Santa Fe Reporter