Midtown Lunch

Sad news on the soup front – it looks like the beloved Cafe Doppio on Beaver (at Broad) has shuttered instead of simply closing for a fix-up session. I know a lot of you liked this place for their huge selection of soups, but they were also next door to a Hale & Hearty and around the corner and across the street from a Cosi and Au Bon Pain. Round that out with the Pret A Manger further up Broad St. and that seems like a little too much soup and sandwich competition in one area for a mom-and-pop store to survive.

There was a little bit of alarming news in the ML: Downtown inbox last week, with a Lunch’er saying that soup mecca Cafe Doppio at Broad & Beaver was closed for renovation. That can sometimes mean that the place is just closed permanently, but no before confusing everyone by taping some note to the metal shutters saying they’re “renovating.” When I walked by, the windows were all papered up, so it looks like they are actually sprucing the place up, and I bet that the Hale & Hearty next door is hoping they take their sweet time.

It’s starting to get cold and gross outside and when that happens I go in search of things to eat that are usually off limits during the summer. One of those items is soup because who really craves a piping hot bowl of broth when you’re already sweating? A couple of people have tipped me off to Cafe Doppio on Broad (at Beaver) but I have yet to make it over there. When I perused the menu and saw they had soups like pozole and chicken paprikash I was intrigued because normally the most exotic thing you find is three bean chili. Read more »