Soup Diary 111107

This past Saturday I was up in Helena and when I was about halfway there (it's a two-hour drive from Dillon) I realized that I'd be able to have lunch at Steve's Cafe. Some readers may recall that a couple months ago I had a stellar cup of soup at said establishment, so naturally I was all lit up with anticipation as I arrived in the capital. I had a couple of errands to run first, but by 11:30, I was ready for some soup and headed over to Steve's. When I arrived, however, I could not find a place to park-- the place was packed. Since it was still kind of early, and I had some other stops to make, I decided to come back. But, about ninety minutes later when I returned, the situation was the same-- in fact I could see several people outside waiting to be seated. Now, at this point I might have considered an alternative to lunch, but the memory of that previous visit (and the chunky tomato soup), not to mention the tacit endorsement of those crowds of Helenites waiting to get in, made me persistent. I decided to kill another half hour and try again. The third time proved to be the charm as I found both a parking spot and got seated right away. The soup of the day was Cream of Broccoli, and while I generally find that variety undeserving of excitement, there are occasional exceptions and I had high hopes for how it would be prepared at Steve's. Sad to say, aside from being particularly chunky with florets, it wasn't anything special. Certainly good, hot and filling, but flavor-wise pretty much what I normally expect from Cream of Broccoli soup. Which means that next time I'm in Helena, I'll go again to Steve's for lunch, but I probably won't make three trips if the place is packed the first time around. But maybe two.