Nincomsoup

Nincomsoup specialises in global soups, whole fibre juices, and specialty coffee.  Founded by two brothers Ben and Tom Page-Phillips, we provide a healthy alternative to the usual fast food suspects. We are a small independent business with a real kitchen where we bake, steam, chop and stir our food from scratch, using own recipes. We have a weekly rotating flexitarian menu to ensure our diners (their gut microbes) are exposed to a healthy variety of foods along with specialist dietary options. 

History

Nincomsoup was officially born on 30th of November 1999 after the two brothers hatched a business plan having tasted their way through the fast food markets of New York and London. They sold their home, Ben quit his job, Tom got out of bed, and all the proceeds of their house went into the 'soup pot'. In April 2000 they signed the lease for an unlikely subterranean site in Old Street Tube Station (former site of a well known burger chain). A year later thanks to the creative talents of Daam and N.B. Studio and the hard labour of Two Up Two Down Builders, Nincomsoup opened its doors in May 2001 and the ladling began. For 20 years Nincomsoup served up soups, juices, and coffee to hungry Londoners, until 2021 when they were forced to close due to a major renovation of the tube station. The closure gifted the brothers time to explore, experiment, and plan a new Nincomsoup project, and that new venture was Nincomsoup Coffee Shop and Tea Garden at The Malthouse Arcade in Hythe, Kent, which opened on the 22nd April 2022.

Food Philosophy

At Nincomsoup we strive to provide simple, honest, 'real' food. We want our food to make a difference to people's day, we understand that what you eat affects your mood, your decisions and your relationships. At the core of our philosophy is our constantly changing menu, we believe the key to a healthy diet is a varied diet and our rotating menu ensures our diners (and their gut microbes) are exposed to a variety of different foods.  From our inception we have offered a flexitarian menu of meat, fish, dairy, and plant based foods, and feature wheat free options throughout our menu. In our Hythe kitchen the emphasis is on local and seasonal produce. Our food choices, and business decisions have far reaching repercussions in far off places, and our food philosophy is evolving to ensure we make decisions that are more in harmony with Mother Earth. In that respect, we are learning to tread ever more lightly, and thoughtfully, for a more sustainable kitchen.

Our Soups

We make our own soups, from scratch, in our kitchen. Recipes and inspirations for our soups come from all over, begged, borrowed, and occasionally stolen (soup espionage), but whatever the source, each one is carefully crafted into a nincomsoup. The two defining features of a nincomsoup are bold flavours and an abundance of ingredients. Each week you will find two soups to choose from, one always plant based. Nincomsoups are the heart and soul of our business and not surprisingly a lot of love and dedication goes into making them.

OUR JUICES

Juice runs deep at Nincpomsoup, and never one to settle, our recipes, equipment and methods have evolved over the last 20 years as we tried to keep up with the latest research on nutrition and juice technology.

We opened our doors with a couple of blenders and a centrifugal juicer, vacuum packing individual portions, then we moved to cold press juice production investing at considerable cost in a masticating juicer that we affectionately called Heidi. Juicing with Heidi was expensive, slow, and labour intensive, but the liquid that flowed from her spout was nectar, and punched a nutritional advantage over our old centrafugal juicer.

Fast forward to today, and we are now beginning to understand the vital role fibre plays in our gut biomes; unfortunately, centrifugal, cold press, and masticating juicers remove much of this this essential resource. Nutritionally, the most impactful way to juice might just be with the simple blender, utilising the whole fruit and vegetable. And that’s where we are now, returning to the humble blender to make whole fibre juices. We’ve come full circle, although some blender manufactureres have unleashed innovative ‘vaccuum’ blenders that reduce enzyme activity, further preserving nutrition, colour, and flavour. We might have to make some tweaks, the juice journey continues…

OUR COFFEE

From the outset, we put a huge effort into our coffee offer, opening our doors with a traditional Italian style coffee offer that at the time competed with the best of the then emerging coffee chains. Then in 2005 we partnered with Union Coffee, one of the Grand Daddys’ of the specialty coffee movement. This was a departure from the traditional dark roast style prevalent at the time, and embraced a new wave of lighter roasts with an emphasis on origin and sustainability.

We continued to develop and push our coffee offer, being one of the very first cafes to introduce oat mylk, and the first to partner and serve The Estate Dairy milk, a specially formulated milk from select breeds of cows reared to produce milk solely for use with coffee; unheard of at the time, Estate Dairy were the pioneers in this field. In 2015 we partnered with our Shoreditch neighbours, Ozone Coffee roasters, and added single origin batch brews, cold brew, house made almond mylk, and a retail area devoted to coffee brew equipment.

In 2022, we opened our Hythe Cafe partnering with local roaster Coldblow, who started life as a mobile espresso van on Hythe beach. To help reduce the cafe carbon foot print we made the decision to drop dairy milk and exclusively serve oat mylk from Minor Figures, a carbon neutral British born and bred company.

Our coffee offer includes single origin batch brew, summer cold brews, and for the first time, nitro, and no doubt some other experiments along the way. We love talking coffee, come by for a chat, a brew, and check out our coffee retail area curated with our favourite pieces of kit, including Kent’s largest selection of coffee filters.

Nincomsoup Brothers

The Nincomsoup brothers grew up in West London with a Cordon Bleu trained cook for a mother and an eclectic antique dealer for a father. Growing up around an abundance of good food, an endless supply of home brewed ginger beer, home cultured yoghurt, and the morning aromas of freshly baked bread, it must have been inevitable that the brothers would try and recreate those childhood sensory memories.