Sit outside near the King Center on a Tuesday afternoon and you’re likely to see the Soup Mama speeding by on her Ezip Trailz electric bike (also known as “Sparky”), delivering soup.
Soup Mama, whose real name is Liana Sisco, is a local celebrity who uses her entrepreneurial prowess to love and serve her community.
Every week, she updates her blog, soup2u.wordpress.com, with the soup she’s cooking. Patrons leave a comment telling if they are interested.
On Mondays, Sisco gets to work in her kitchen, preparing a delectable soup with fresh, organic ingredients. Tuesday is delivery day. Sisco must keep her customer base within a two-mile radius of the King Center so she can easily get soup to their doors.
Soup Mama doesn’t actually run as a business because Sisco prepares the soups in her home kitchen. Instead, the project operates on donations.
“Soup-scribers” are encouraged to kick in $12 for a one-quart Mason jar, or two large servings, accompanied by fresh bread from Sisco’s friend and cohort Brian Siegmann of Local Boy Bakery.
Inspired by the Soup Peddler, a man who sought to connect with his neighbors in Austin, Texas through soup, Sisco began making and delivering soups in August. She moved downtown from Henry County in November 2009 with her husband Burke and daughters Shelly and April.
“We wanted to go where people feel needs,” Sisco said. “It’s not sexy, and you know, it’s messy, but that’s why we moved here.”
When her soup blog started getting heavy attention, Sisco discovered a woman in Inman Park who didn’t want to order one week because she was pregnant and her baby was due soon. Soup Mama took the opportunity to bring her soup and cookies.
“She was so excited. We got to give it to her as a gift because we know she has a need. And that’s really, you know, the whole bottom line,” Sisco said.
Soup Mama’s soup-scribers have nothing but good things to say about their kind-hearted city mother.
Grant Park patrons Luke Batchelor and Eddie Kelly are regular customers who look forward to Soup Mama’s delivery every week, not only for the soup.
“She kind of represents this ideal in Atlanta of community, of ‘my neighbors are my friends, not my enemies, and it’s bad if they’re strangers,’ and I guess a lot of people don’t get out of their box. She’s the reaction against that. I love living in a city where I can walk out on my doorstep and see this stranger delivering soup and be friends with her,” Batchelor said.
With about 22 customers a week, Soup Mama stays busy. She is incredibly dedicated to continuing her service, despite any obstacle that stands in her way.
Soup Mama delivered in the January snowstorm, locally dubbed “Snowpocalypse,” while moving to a new home. Even when her bike broke down, she still came through.
“Eddie is really impressed with how devoted I am to soup. I tell him, ‘I’m devoted to you. The soup is a tool,'” Sisco said.
Recent concoctions Soup Mama has added to her repertoire are curried corn chowder, a bouktouf (an Algerian vegetable soup), chicken potpie soup and vegetable soup with pesto.
“The soups are delicious. I have at least one meal, maybe two meals done with her soups. Staying pretty busy and being able to come home and have incredible soup is great,” Kelly said.
The Soup Mama’s soup blog is at soup2u.wordpress.com. To receive a soup-scription, e-mail Soup Mama at yesplease@thesoupmama.com.
