No Soup for You!: ‘Soup Nazi’ Company Caught in Legal Dispute
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ABC News(NEW YORK) — A legal dispute is threatening to put the restaurant chain created by the real-life Soup Nazi on simmer.
Al Yeganeh was immortalized on the show Seinfeld as the Soup Nazi, a character famous for his unsavory behavior and for uttering the iconic “No soup for you!” catchphrase.
Creditors of a bankrupt company called Soup Kitchen International are steaming, saying they were put on the back burner after a group of the original soup man owners mismanaged the company.
Soup Kitchen International owned the The Original Soup Man name first — and claimed they were bilked out of the name and Yeganeh’s recipes during a 2009 licensing deal.
The two sides have been ordered to mediate the matter. A meeting has been scheduled for next week.
Bob Bertrand, who is the CFO of Soup Man and is a defendant in the case, said he is confident the matter will “get settled next week or the week after,” the New York Post reported.
Yageneh has remained tight-lipped on the matter, but it’s possible he could be called in to testify.
Bertrand told the Post that Yeganeh “doesn’t like controversy so he’s laying low.”
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