ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: DAVE SALTONSTALL KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
The New Yorker who was thrust into the national spotlight as the Soup Nazi on the ``Seinfeld'' show is furious at the top-rated TV comedian.
Al Yeganeh says Jerry Seinfeld stopped by the International Soup Kitchen on West 55th Street recently, mainly to apologize for any pain the show may have caused.
Seinfeld took away a large order of abuse.
``For three minutes, I just kept cursing him, and he just kept saying, `I'm sorry,''' recalled Yeganeh, who suggested that Seinfeld apologize to him publicly - on national TV. No word yet on that.
Yeganeh simply refuses to profit - or take any joy - from being called a Nazi.
``I have talent. I have education,'' said Yeganeh. ``That word should not be used for any serious person. It is never funny.''
Plucked from obscurity less than a year ago by the NBC sitcom, Yeganeh's eatery is now mobbed daily by loyal fans eager to wait an hour for a dollop of soup and abuse.
His cachet is so great that a rival, cloyingly dubbed Soup Nutsy, opened 10 blocks away last June - with plans to open 500 more nationwide.
Last spring, a publisher offered Yeganeh a cookbook deal worth six figures, and last week, New York magazine credited him with starting an all-out, citywide soup war.
But Yeganeh has spurned celebrity.
His restaurant has never advertised, does not deliver and has no seats.
You won't see his face on any cookbook (the publisher wanted the subtitle ``As seen on `Seinfeld''') or in any new restaurant (Soup Nutsy wanted to hang Yeganeh's picture on its wall) or on any cans of ``Soup Nazi'' soup (yes, he's had that offer, too).
For Yeganeh, there is only one true path to glory, and that is soup. And he treats all his creations - from the crab bisque to the corn chowder - with an almost religious fervor. And his customers respond in kind.
On a recent weekday, for instance, there were 65 people in line waiting for soup at 11:50 a.m., 10 minutes before opening.
An hour later, there were 105; the line stretched 50 feet down West 55th Street, then north half a block up Eighth Avenue.
Why would anyone wait an hour to pay $5.50 for a 12-ounce cup of soup?
``It is simply that delicious,'' said Roland Colbert, 43, who thinks nothing of waiting 45 minutes for three ladlefuls of his favorite, lobster bisque. ``You have to stop thinking of it as soup. It is really a meal.''
``My customers love me; they worship me,'' Yeganeh said with typical bluster. ``And I love them back.''
It is not hard to see, however, how a comedian could be drawn to Yeganeh, who really can be as unforgiving as his character on TV - at least when it comes to his soup.
``Listen to me!'' he barked over the phone to a chicken purveyor last week. ``If the chickens are not fresh, you will lose me forever. You will never get me back!''
Ten minutes later, he was threatening to sue a company that poked a hole in his canopy while installing a security gate. ``If you destroy my canopy, then you pay for it,'' he raged.
With customers, however, Yeganeh seems far more softy than Nazi.
``Five-fifty for this?'' questioned one customer last week when handed his soup, obviously unaware of Yeganeh's reputation.
``Look,'' responded the soup man, ``if you don't think it is worth $5.50 after you've eaten it, come back later, and I'll give you your money back.'' The man never returned.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KRT. Al Yeganeh, the model for Jerry Seinfeld's "Soupby CNBNazi," ladels up a lunch at his New York stand: ``I have talent. I
have education,'' says Yeganeh. ``That word [Nazi] should not be
used for any serious person. It is never funny.'' color.