SEINFELD Writer Recalls Taking Jerry Seinfeld to ‘Soup Nazi’ After Episode Aired and Getting Kicked Out

One of the most iconic and cited episodes of Seinfeld is the episode “The Soup Nazi”, in which Jerry and his friends find a man who sells the best soups they have ever tasted, but is very mean and very strict about the conduct of his customers when they line up to buy his soup creations.

When he finds someone behaving in a way he doesn’t like, he shouts, “No soup for you!”, and throws him out of the line, never to allow him to return. The episode is based on the real Soup Kitchen International restaurant and chef Ali “Al” Yeganeh, who inspired the character and plot.

It’s a great episode, but it had unexpected (but not surprising) repercussions for the show’s star and namesake.

In a recent interview with ComicBook for the next one Jerry Seinfeld-film produced and starred in Unfrosted: the history of the pop tartwriter Spike Ferestenwho wrote several episodes of the series Seinfelddetailed what happened after the premiere of “The Soup Nazi,” saying:

“It made me reluctant to go back there, in case someone said, ‘He’s the one who wrote that,’ because the real guy in New York wasn’t happy that we wrote that episode.”

He recalled meeting Jerry Seinfeld, noting that he ended up on the front page of the New York Post the next day:

“You know the story, right? The next summer I took Jerry there, and he said, ‘Hey, I’d like to order some soup,’ and [Yeganeh] he said, ‘Get the F out of here,’ and kicked him out of the line,” Ferensten explained.”[Jerry] says, “What’s the matter?” I made you famous,’ and he said, ‘You didn’t make me famous: The Today Show made me famous.’ He said, ‘Well, I want soup,’ and then he literally said a real version of ‘no soup for tea with a lot of swearing: no damn soup for you, get out of here.'”

Yeganeh’s original Soup Kitchen location closed in 2004, as it did its best to expand. He reopened the original location in 2010 under the name “the Original Soup Man”, which was also the name of a number of franchises he operated.

The company still exists, although Yeganeh is no longer part of the day-to-day operations. In 2017, one of its executives was arrested for financial crimes, forcing the company into bankruptcy, although it emerged in 2018 under new management and appears to have weathered the crisis.

Since 2005, The Original Soup Man has also sold hot and served soups in grocery stores and, at one point, even licensed the likeness of the actor who played the Soup Nazi.

Not frosted debuts on Netflix May 3.