Stone Soup in its new location

Stone Soup's old location. A month or so ago, they moved down the street to Marco Polo's old joint. Much to the joy of Foster, meat lasagna is not on the menu at this time.

On Friday I hit up Stone Soup with some coworkers to check out their new location. As you may recall, they moved a month or so ago from their corner store to the old Marco Polo's restaurant, across the street from IHS. I haven't been there yet, but the stars aligned on Friday to let me take some time.

Right now, I'm a little mixed.

Stone Soup will obviously thrive in this location. The restaurant is huge and has lots of parking, and now they serve alcohol in the restaurant. I think once school is out, kids will love to come here for sandwiches.

Inside, I felt that the restaurant was struggling between Stone Soup aesthetics and Marco Polo aesthetics. Then again, it's only been a month, so they may still be trying to get rid of the old and bring in the new. The chalk boards are slowly making their way in, though, which is promising.

Stone Soup now has the capabilities to fry things, which they seem to be capitalizing on, with french fries now available with each sandwich and several specials of the fried seafood variety. I got fries, and they were tasty, but I think I might go back to potato salad next time I go there, to kick it old school.
Now here are my two issues with the new location. One, there were three soups on this Friday: chili, chicken noodle, and chowder. At the old location, there were many more than that on a regular basis. Also, it was only noon. My argument with this is THE NAME OF YOUR RESTAURANT IS STONE SOUP. It's not Stone Sandwich, it's Stone SOUP. Have some freaking soup varieties. I went with the hopes of having soup, since my seasonal allergies have been driving me nuts, but no dice. I hope the next time I go back there's a better variety.

The second is just a general complaint. It's still cash only, from all I see. Cash only in this day and age is annoying, and should be limited to Great Scott. You can afford the charges to run a credit card machine. I'd go to your restaurant more if you took a debit card. Just a pain.

So I think it's worth a visit, but I get the impression they're still working out some kinks. I'll be interested to see how the restaurant develops and changes in this new location in the summer. I have a feeling business will boom.


Also, when looking for photos, it made me hungry for Ipswich Clam Box. Mmmm