By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
Sonya Yelder had every intention of celebrating her 50th birthday with a trip to Barcelona. She’d even reached out to a group of friends to join her.
But a phone call changed her plans entirely.
“I called up a friend and asked her, ‘What should I do? Should I open my own business, or go to Barcelona?’” Yelder told Prime.
She said that friend replied, “Open a business. You can always go to Barcelona.”
In October of 2016, the classically trained chef turned her dream of entrepreneurship into reality, opening the Souper Sweet Sandwich Shop – serving hand-crafted soups, inspired sandwiches and select desserts – at 929 Belmont Avenue in Springfield.
“You know how you have a lot of thing you want to do? I‘ve gone from opening a B[ed] & B[reakfast] to a sit-down restaurant to a food truck.” Yeller said. “I though [Souper Sweet] was the easiest way to break into this market.”
A simmering talent
Yelder comes by her passion for cooking honestly – she talks lovingly about the meals her mother prepared in their Springfield home, and summers spent at her grandmother’s house in the South, where home-made was the byword.
“She did her own farming, she had a smokehouse, and pear and pecan trees [on her land],” Yelder recalled.
But her first career aspirations were 180° from anything kitchen related.
“I was a political science major going into law,” she said. “Then I took a hospitality course as an elective”
During that course “something clicked,” and Yelder said she immediately changed her major, graduating with a degree in international hospitality from UMass.
From there she went to culinary school in Europe, spending three months in Paris, and two years working in London. Just recently she took a class in Italian food and wines.
“I try to take as many food courses as I can, because the food cycle is constantly changing,” Yelder said. “There’s always something new.”
And her sandwich shop isn’t the only place where Yelder needs to keep her culinary skills sharp. Despite the long hours she puts in as a small business owner, she works full-time at Smith College, where she’s been in the culinary department for 20 years.
“I work early at the other job and then I’m here, except Mondays and Tuesdays, which are my days off [from Smith], Yelder said, adding those are her full-time days at Souper Sweet. “When I’m not here my niece Tiffany is here, and [an employee] Pedro works for me days.
“It’s crazy work,” she continued, “[But] It’s all in what you want to do and where you want to be and how you want to do this.”
Her inspiration for the shop’s concept, she said, came straight from the basics of her culinary training.
“You start with stocks. You make stock, you make soup,” Yelder said. “There are not a lot of people [in this business] who make their own soup.”
Carving a niche
Yelder said her goal when opening the “Souper Sweet” was to get people to “step outside their comfort zone” and try new things.
“ I worked with this woman for years who brought a tuna sandwich to work every day.” Yelder said. It amazed her, because the woman was employed in hospitality/culinary arts with her.
Thus at Souper Sweet, you won’t find traditional deli-style sandwiches on the menu.
“I don’t do a lot of deli meats, I’m not a fan,” she said. “They’re full of sodium.”
Her inspired sandwiches range from the “Hot Mess” – a sloppy joe smothered in beer cheese made with Berkshire Brewing Company’s busker pilsner to her “New Englander” that combines maple-brined turkey breast, home-made cranberry sauce, caramelized apples, cheddar and arugula, to the homage to her late brother, Junior’s Absolute Favorite – barbecued pulled pork topped with cheese-it mac & cheese.
Souper Sweet’s menu lists 13 signature sandwich selections in all, and a 14th sandwich “special” Yelder develops and offers each week.
“We’re about building layers of flavors,” Yelder said of her sandwich creations, adding that her signature combinations have evolved during the year the shop has been open, with some early specials becoming staples on the menu.
“I love coming up with new ideas and having people try them,” she said.
She sources much of her ingredients locally – turning seasonal fruits and vegetables into her own salsas and spreads, and buying her bread from the Italian Bake Shop “down the street.” Her recipes, she said, come, “from my head.”
Her soups – a meat, a cream, a vegetarian and “something gluten free” – which were the inspiration for her shop – change every week, as do her dessert offerings. To view Souper Sweet’s menu, which includes the soups, desserts and sandwich special of the week, visit www.soupersweetsandwichshop.com.
And Yelder hasn’t just waited for customers to discover her inspired lunch offerings. She’s got a website, an active Facebook page and, with help from her niece, brought soup and sandwich selections to the summer Farmers’ Market at Forest Park. That venture was successful enough she has plans to continue offering her fare at the monthly Winter Market.
“People that don’t venture out this way [on Belmont Avenue] know we are here and we’ve built a lot of good relationships with people” through the market, Yelder said.
A community commitment
Yelder readily admits it was a “big investment” to renovate the space and open her shop on Belmont Avenue, but basing her business in Springfield was important to her.
“I’ve had customers say ‘Why aren’t you in Northampton, this would be huge up there’,” Yelder said. “But I grew up [in Springfield]. Things have changed since I grew up here, but someone has to make a commitment to change and I’d like to be one of them. Probably it’s the political science person still in me.”
She said she savors the opportunity her shop has given her to broaden the world for the people who come to sample her fare.
Food – and flavors – she said, is a form of “traveling without traveling.”
Yelder said in turn her shop has served her up a helping of community – “the people who come in and I meet, the ‘oh, how is your life [conversations].’ That’s a bonus, and that’s not a bad thing.
“ Nobody works 100 hours a week for the money,” Yelder observed. “You do it because you love it.”
