My Biz: Her Soup Kitchen rates high with customers

Barb Farnsworth says in the nearly six years Her Soup Kitchen has been open, word-of-mouth has turned her restaurant into a must-stop destination.

Her Soup Kitchen is ranked No. 2 on Yelp and Trip Advisor in the Iowa City restaurant category. Farnsworth said every day, such recommendations bring roughly 10 customers, who are traveling and found her through Google.

'You're not going to see an ad in the paper for me,” she said.

Farnsworth, along with her family, opened Her Soup Kitchen, at 625 S Dubuque St., in October 2009. Fresh, local, and sustainable food has been their focus from the beginning.

'We're trying to give our customers the best product they can pay for,' said Krista Farnsworth, Barb's daughter.

Much of the food they serve comes from local vendors or is grown in one of the four gardens the family maintains. During the summer months, roughly 90 percent of what they serve comes from the Iowa City Farmers Market.

'You will see us down there every single Saturday from now until November when it ends,” Krista said.

They also are looking into building a greenhouse to increase the amount of food they grow themselves.

Krista Farnsworth said it always was the family joke that they should open a restaurant because they loved to cook together. Barb Farnsworth also had been collecting kitchen appliances from auctions for years.

'We cook all the time and people would come over and go ‘Oh my gosh your food is fabulous,'” Barb Farnsworth said.

But it wasn't until 2009 that they began treating the family joke as a serious possibility. Barb and husband Dick, son Jason and Krista all were at career transition points.

'So it kind of all came together,” Barb Farnsworth said.

Barb, Dick, and Krista work full time in the resturant. Jason does consulting with his mother and works as the full time kitchen manager at John's Grocery, 401 E Market St.

Barb said in addition to serving quality food, keeping prices low also is really important to her. All full meals, which include a choice of two items - soup, salad, or sandwich - or a specialty salad, are $11. She said 85 to 90 percent of what they make is prepared in house, which helps cut down on cost without sacrificing quality ingredients.

'I think the proudest thing that I've done is shared good food,” Barb said. 'People can still get good homemade food for a reasonable price.”

l Know a company in business for more than a year that would make an ideal My Biz? Contact Francie Williamson at francie.williamson@thegazette.com