Following Motorcycle Crash, Good Soup Closing
Restaurant will remain open through Sunday, Sept. 3.
Sign at the site of the future Good Soup restaurant. Photo courtesy of Samantha Zielinski.
Samantha Zielinski opened Good Soup last November, serving up bowls of seasonal soup — accompanied by thick slices of homemade sourdough — from a tiny kitchen in the West View neighborhood.
Throughout its roughly nine months in business, the restaurant, 3135 S. 92nd St., was especially cognizant of third-shift workers, operating late into the night and early-morning hours to accommodate nurses and other healthcare workers.
In an ironic twist of fate, Zielinski will soon close Good Soup in order to care for her fiance and co-owner, Travis Reynolds, while he recovers from a serious motorcycle crash.
The restaurant will sell the last of its inventory on Saturday, Sept. 2 and Sunday, Sept. 3 from noon until 6 p.m.. The restaurant is offering 16-ounce and 32-ounce containers of cold soup and full loaves of sourdough for carryout.
Prior to reopening on Friday, the restaurant was temporarily closed for all of August, after Reynolds and his brother, Konner, sustained life-threatening injuries from a severe crash.
According to Zielinski, a woman attempted to make a left turn in front of the men, who were riding motorcycles, and collided with them. In light of the crash, she urged people to talk with their elderly loved ones about retiring from driving, in hopes of preventing future incidents.
“As we are able to grow older, we must accept accountability and new responsibilities,” she said. “This accident could have been prevented if the senior citizen who hit them had a family member escorting her to wherever she needed to go.”
After Zielinski announced the upcoming closure, customers flocked to the restaurant in record numbers Friday afternoon. Within a few hours, several soups were already sold out.
Remaining options include cheeseburger soup (with or without bacon, cheddar broccoli, chicken wild rice, mushroom barley, dill pickle soup (with or without bacon), chicken tortilla and West African peanut stew.
Zielinski said she hopes to eventually reopen the restaurant, even if it has to return in a different location or format. “We don’t know exactly where we’ll be or when you’ll hear from us next, but we WILL be back. Eventually,” Zielinski wrote in a social media post.
In the heartfelt message, Zielinski also thanked Good Soup’s regular customers, who she said “made every hard day a little easier.”
“This whole experience has been a dream come true,” she added.
Family members have organized a fundraiser to assist the brothers with medical bills and living expenses throughout their recovery. As of Friday afternoon, a GoFundMe had raised $29,423 towards a $100,000 goal. Donations can be made online.
Future updates on the business will be posted to the Good Soup Facebook page.
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