Look for a Zoup! Fresh Soup Co. franchise to open in Copley Township in January.
The franchise is owned by Maureen Harris, who also owns the Zoup! at 4898 Portage St. NW in Jackson Township, which opened last January. The new restaurant will be located in Montrose Centre, 3900 Medina Road, Suite W.
Zoup! offers 12 soups daily, rotating from a selection of hundreds of varieties. The choices include daily low-fat, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free offerings.
Each order is served with a hunk of freshly baked bread. The menu also includes salads and sandwiches.
Zoup! has more than 40 locations in nine states, including six Cleveland-area locations.
Visit www.zoup.com for more information.
Speaking of soup …
Congratulations to Mogadore resident Christina Sommers, the winner in a national winter/holiday recipe contest sponsored by CFChef, a nutritional support website for people living with cystic fibrosis and their families.
Sommers won with her recipe for Yummy Baked Potato Soup, which will appear in the CFChef Online Cookbook, at www.Chef4CF.com.
Entries were evaluated by registered dietitian Suzanne Michel, who determined the top recipes based on nutritional value, flavor appeal, creativity and the story behind the recipe.
Sommers suffers from cystic fibrosis and has spent many years trying to create the perfect pot of potato soup. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States.
Here is the link to her recipe: www.chef4cf.com/recipes/dinner.html?recipe_id=81
New chef at Green eatery
The 356th Fighter Group, 4919 Mount Pleasant Road, Green, has a new chef.
Walter J. Halchak III has been in the kitchen for a few months, and has spent his time revamping the menu and creating a list of daily chef specials.
New items include raspberry barbecued salmon over smoked Gouda risotto, Asiago and Irish cheddar crusted tilapia with Dublin potato cakes and a horseradish veloute, seafood lasagna with béchamel and freshly grated Romano cheese, and Maytag blue cheese and caramelized onion filet mignon with a red onion rosemary cabernet sauce.
Halchak also has been offering a weekly bread pudding special.
Brunch at Copley Hudson’s
Hudson’s restaurant in Copley Township is now serving weekend brunch from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The menu includes omelets, eggs Benedict, hash, biscuits and gravy, buttermilk hotcakes, toasted almond French toast and loco moco, a Hawaiian dish served Akron style with a fried egg, steak burger and rice topped with sausage gravy.
All items are under $10. Hudson’s is at 3900 Medina Road. For more information, visit www.hudsonsrestaurant.com or phone 330-666-7777.
Gingerbread finalist
Congrats to Cuyahoga Falls dentist John Learner, who was one of three finalists in a gingerbread house contest on NBC’s Today show, which aired Tuesday.
Learner’s creation was a Victorian brick house, decorated with hard-to-find candies, including Fruit Stripe Gum, white candy canes, and blue and white Starlight mints.
He wasn’t the winner, but his house was spectacular, and you can see it at http://holiday blog.today.com/.
Cookie recipe correction
In the Dec. 12 food section, there was an error in the type layout in a recipe for snowflake cookies in the Kitchen Scoop column.
The third and fourth lines of the ingredients should be read together, as follows: “½ cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter.”
Lisa Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or at labraham@thebeaconjournal.com. Find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @akronfoodie or visit my blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/lisa.