My Biz: Restaurant goes for a view and lunchtime variety

Name: Ryan Buresh

Title: Owner

Company: Prairie Soup Company

Address: 425 2nd St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Phone: (319) 362-0972

Website: www.prairiesoup.com

Elevator pitch: “There is so much potential to get creative with soup.”

CEDAR RAPIDS - Ryan Buresh knows a thing or two about soup.

As owner of the Prairie Soup Company in downtown Cedar Rapids, he serves up hearty bowls during the workweek.

Buresh himself puts in long days - arriving in the morning a little before 6 a.m. and leaving after sweeping and mopping up at about 5 p.m.

Buresh admits he is partial to the soups on the menu - there are six different soups served every day. But he also really likes to talk up the wraps.

“Our wraps are basically big salads with grilled chicken, all wrapped tightly in an extra large tortilla,” he said. “We make our own salad dressings.”

Prairie Soup also offers deli sandwiches, panini, salads and breakfast items.

Buresh didn't train to be restaurateur. He received a degree in accounting from the University of Iowa and is a CPA - he worked for several years at GreatAmerica Leasing as a financial analyst.

But he loves to cook and had a desire to do something other than crunch numbers.

So in October 2008 - five years after developing the business plan, and just months after the flood that devastated downtown Cedar Rapids - Buresh opened Prairie Soup.

The concept, Buresh said, came from a company in San Francisco he saw grow from one store up to 15 during the six years he and his wife lived in California.

“So many lunch restaurants focus on sandwiches. And I just loved the idea of a lunch restaurant whose focus was another lunch staple,” he said. “Plus, there is so much potential to get creative with soup.”

As for being downtown, “Our location has been both a blessing and a curse,” said Buresh of Prairie Soup's home on the skywalk level of the APAC building.

“We have had great support from the tenants of our building, and we were lucky that our building filled up very quickly after the flood. But I also think it is a little difficult to get people in the shop from outside of our building because they have to take an elevator or the steps to get to us,” he noted.

“Once they are up here and see our restaurant and the view of downtown,” he added, “they come back.”

Prairie Soup soups have been for sale at Java Creek Café and Zoey's Pizzeria this year.

“We are currently working on one or two additional wholesale accounts that will result in our soup being available in every quadrant of the city,” Buresh said.

 Know someone who runs a business who should be considered for “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.