By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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LOVES PARK — There’s an addictive quality to the hearty, made-from-scratch soups that Julie Alexander has served her family for years.
They like to say the soup is good because it’s made with love, but in reality they can’t pinpoint exactly why they can’t get enough.
“All of the potato soups I’ve ever had taste nothing like what she makes. I don’t even know why it’s so good, but it just is,” said Gavin Alexander, her 24-year-old stepson. “I can’t get enough of it. I eat it until I hurt.”
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Now, Julie Alexander is ready to share her meals made with love with the rest of the community. She and her husband, David, are opening Mama’s Feel Good Food inside Dairy Depot, 5413 N. Second St. The comfort food carryout restaurant serves soups and artisan breads, and it will operate on weekends during cold-weather months until ice cream is served again when the weather warms up.
“Bringing love through food to the community here, that’s success to me,” said Julie Alexander, who is launching her first entrepreneurial effort.
The restaurant’s grand opening is slated for 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28. The layout at the grand opening event will be much like it is for Dairy Depot, with outdoor picnic seating. After that, the Alexanders plan to adjust the space so you can pull your vehicle in front of the building and pick up your soup without having to step out into the cold.
The family-run business will be open during lunch and dinner hours on Fridays and Saturdays as the couple continues to work their full-time jobs. Julie works as a banker and David is a truck driver who hauls liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen.
“As the demand gets bigger, obviously we will then be open more days and longer hours,” Julie said.
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The menu will consist of three soups and two varieties of bread, all of which are named in honor the Alexanders’ children and, in one case, their dogs. There is Lulu’s Love Dumplins, Mama’s Boys Baked Potato Soup, Little Man’s Chicken King and Muga’s Magic Bread. You can also get a sampler flight of all three soups called Triss and the Fathead’s Fourth Meal Flight, which is named after their two spoiled pups.
These are not the type of soups designed for dainty sips. They’re heavy and filling food to warm you up.
“This is comfort food. This is what makes my kids feel good,” Julie Alexander said. “Nothing is brothy. These soups are hearty and thick.”
Julie Alexander said she had cooked for her family for years, and had previous offers from people who encouraged her to start a business. This summer, she decided now was the time. She’s spent the past four months refining the recipes and asking her coworkers and family to serve as taste-testers.
“I have eaten the potato soup almost every day for four months,” David Alexander said.
But he hasn’t tired of it.
“I’m telling you if you set a pizza — which is my favorite food — with a bowl of soup and the bread she makes, I’m taking the soup and bread every time.”
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They received good feedback from coworkers, too.
“One of the people that she works with said, ‘It’s 85 degrees in August and I’m eating potato soup,'” David Alexander said. “And it was a good thing. He was happy about it.”
The couple initially thought about opening a food truck, but then Julie said she had a dream about operating from inside the Dairy Depot. So they reached out to owners Robb and Diana Witt and worked out a deal. The couple rents commissary kitchen space from the local VFW to do their cooking and serves the food from the window at the ice cream shop.
“Little ice cream shops have been around forever, and they seem to always stay,” David said. “Why hasn’t somebody put a soup shop in?”
Now, the goal is draw people in and keep them coming back.
“I love when people love my food,” Julie said. “The feedback that I get really fuels me. It’s like a hamster wheel but a good one.
“When I cook and everybody goes nuts that feeds my soul.”
About | Mama’s Feel Good Food
Where: 5413 N. Second St., Loves Park (at Dairy Depot)
Grand opening: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28
Hours: TBD, Fridays and Saturdays
On the web: Find them on Facebook HERE
Contact: MFGFMadeWithLove@yahoo.com
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas