Pea Soup

I have made the drive from Northern California, where I live, to Southern California many times. Usually on the return leg, I take the Highway 101 route and make a point of stopping in Buellton to visit the Andersen Soup company. Anderson has been making soup, most famously pea soup, since 1924 when Anton and Juliette Andersen opened their first restaurant called “Andersen’s Electric Cafe,” in honor of their prized possession, a new electric stove. (That’s a technology perspective make).

Buellton is situated just north of where Highway 1/Highway 101 turns inland for a spell and then splits apart. Highway 1 mostly follows the Pacific coast and Highway 101 forms the central business route to the SF Bay Area. If you are traveling 101 the central length of CA, just north of Santa Barbara you can’t avoid driving past Buellton. Take the Highway 245 exit, which is also the way to the town of Solvang, a quaint Danish-heritage tourist destination, and of more current interest, the gateway to the Santa Ynez Valley wine region where the movie “Sideways” was filmed.    

The Andersen Soup restaurant and store is one block west off the exit. The restaurant entrance first takes you through the store filled with all things Andersen and wonderful additions such as the year-round Christmas Store, samplings of the Danish Blue Delft you find in abundance up the road in Solvang, Andersen’s fruit wines (I bought the Honeymead which is better over ice cream than straight drinking), books on local color, a bakery, lots of other stuff and, of course, Pea Soup –  cans of both regular and bacon versions and bags of dried split peas for making your own soup at home.

Of particular interest to me was the memory that, in bygone years, Andersen’s also made a Vichyssoise soup that I loved. Vichyssoise is a cold potato soup. Andersen’s was rich, creamy and tasty. No bland potato soup here. You can still find the cans of Pea, and even Tomato, soups in most grocery stores. However, I recall looking for the Vichyssoise version a few years back with no luck.

Finding myself at its source, I asked about it and received a blank ”HUH?!” reply in return. So a pulled a book of Andersen’s history and recipes from their self in search for my memory. No recipe was included and but I did find an old black and white picture of the restaurant’s menu which listed the Vichyssoise along with potato, pea, pea with bacon and tomato. Showing the picture to the women behind the counter, I just received a shrug. She did ask another women about it and I received a similar ‘whatever’ shrug.

Oh well. Time marches on. And though I am sure that the cold potato soup would only be a sometime purchase, as is the pea soup, due to its high salt content, something I watch much more carefully now, it would be nice to have that treat on occasion. I have sent an email to the company to see if my memory is correct or just a transposed figment of my imagination. As of this posting, no reply. In any case, if you are driving past Buellton, I recommend a stop at Pea Soups Andersen for a blast from the past and a good, hearty meal at a reasonable price.