Stephanie Spear 
Two classic ingredients make the Herndon-based business 100 Bowls of Soup what it is. First, delicious and nourishing soup. Second, a deep commitment to the community. This soup shop, located at 279 Sunset Park Drive in Herndon, started as a stand at the farmers market and is celebrating its 16th year in business. We chatted with founder Katharine Mardirosian to learn more about the secret sauce to 100 Bowls of Soup’s success. Read on for more about Katharine and 100 Bowls of Soup.
About 100 Bowls of Soup
Katharine Mardirosian started 100 Bowls of Soup in 2009. She sold soup at local farmers markets, scaling up from her home kitchen to a church kitchen and finally a commercial kitchen before landing in Herndon in 2015. The space, located at 279 Sunset Park Drive, has commercial kitchen space and a small retail space in the front of the store. Visitors can shop soup and peek into the kitchen during a visit.
Selling at the farmers market creates a natural feedback loop, Katharine said. “Someone will come the next week and tell us what they thought of the soup,” she said. “Best way to start out. Have to engage with your customers, explain what you’re doing. Can watch them taste it.” The store is a little different, but customers will still come in and talk about the soups.
Every week there are dozens of soups available. There are always options for those following a special diet such as vegan soups, vegetarian, gluten-free, low FODMAP, etc. The soups change with the seasons but some staples are nearly always available, such as chicken noodle soup.
The inspiration for new soup flavors comes from all over the place, Katharine said. “Sometimes the farmer will give us extra of a certain crop, or one of the chefs will be inspired by something she made at home,” she said. “Or we’ll look on the shelf and see if a flavor or texture is missing, or we need to make sure a certain diet is covered in the soups. Sometimes the chefs will take home an ingredient or spice and just play around with it. That’s the fun part!”
The Special Sauce
As Katharine describes it, the community created by 100 Bowls of Soup has two parts: the customers and the chefs. She feels grateful for both, especially after making it through COVID. “I consider myself and our business very grateful that we’re still around,” she said. “A lot of small businesses, food businesses, didn’t make it through.”
Katharine said that a series of small decisions led to the business’s success through COVID. “We decided to focus exclusively on retail sales, and we made our kitchen into two teams to keep schedules separate. We wanted to take care of our staff and keep up with local suppliers. Those, plus a bunch of other decisions, really served us well in the long run,” she said. “We focused on what we do best, what can the staff do safely, and what do customers need. Which is really good soup.”
Katharine and the team learned a lot from that time, she said. “After COVID, we increased our variety, and switched to an online store so people can see what we have and order online. We wanted to connect back to the local customer base.”
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“We have an open kitchen so you can see everything we do. We want to show off our ingredients,” she continued. “We have amazing chefs and great recipes. We’ve had the same team for close to five to seven years, some of us even longer. We’ve stuck together through COVID. The chefs are just amazing in their creativity and ability to juggle a lot in the kitchen. I can’t say enough good things about them – they’re what makes this place tick. Their hands are all over the product – everything made by hand.”
The other part of the community is the customers. “We have a wonderful customer base that supports and understands what we do,” she said. “We have a lot of customers who are really supportive and curious.”
“We’re happy and grateful to interact with the customers we do. So many stories of the relationships we have with our customers,” Katharine said. “They share their health journeys, they’re trying to find something good and nourishing for their families, to buy soup for a sick loved one. Those are things that make us happy – when we feel like we’re nourishing people or there’s great feedback for the chefs.”
100 Bowls of Soup Founder Katharine Mardirosian
“When you’re in a food business, it’s kind of an intimate relationship. Feeding someone, it’s like having someone over to your house for dinner. That’s what I feel like our chefs do. It’s a really special relationship,” Katherine said. “We’re not a restaurant. But we feel that nurturing piece of it. It’s really important and satisfying. We’re so proud of the soup and grateful that people make our soup part of their lifestyle, and meal plan.”
Perhaps the best example of the community created by 100 Bowls of Soup is the shop’s partnership with Cornerstones, a non-profit organization in Northwestern Fairfax County that supports individuals and families in need. “We had been doing a couple of things with them, very early on when we first started at this space. We had a bunch of volunteers in our kitchen who prepared soup for them. All together we prepared soup and roasted vegetables. Whenever we had anything extra we donated it to them,” Katharine said.
“They were great. They have a shelter we donated to as well. Then we just thought, especially during the pandemic, the need is so great. We should bake this into our business plan. That’s how it started – April 2020. Let’s see if we can figure out 100 soups every week. Not leftovers – deliberate, planning for it. When numbers come in, when we decide what we’re making, orders from our wholesale customers plus retail, we add 100 more so we can donate. Now, we have two volunteers who come every Wednesday to deliver the soup to the shelter. The staff really feels good about being able to do that.”
Visitors to the shop can expect to be bowled over (sorry – couldn’t resist) by the incredible selection of soups available. From hearty to light and refreshing, there is a soup for any diner and any diet. The chefs can be seen in the open kitchen working on their next masterpiece, using colorful and seasonal ingredients. And the smells. The smells! Just a whiff and any visitor knows there is some serious cooking underway. Visitors can also ‘purchase’ a bowl of soup to donate to Cornerstones. The team offers cooking classes regularly, all of which are posted on the store’s social media.
Katharine says her favorite soup is the lemony turmeric soup. “It has lemon, quinoa, chicken, carrots, kale. It tastes so good and it feels really good,” she said. “It satisfies on all fronts.”
