Soup's On! It started with the Soup Nazi. Now it's one of America's hottest restaurant concepts.

Summers in New York are usually hot and steamy. But for once, this winter is expected to be hot and steamy, too--in the soup restaurant business, that is. During the past two years, a host of newcomers to the restaurant business have been racing to make soup "the next big thing." Their motto: "We want to be the next Starbucks." Yeah, well, who doesn't? The thing is, one of these folks just might do it.

The self-proclaimed leader of the pack is Daily Soup, with eight locations in New York City and another 10 expected to open on the East Coast early next year. "We always had multiple locations in mind when we started this," says Bob Spiegel, 36, who--along with partners Carla Ruben, 35, and Peter Siegel, 29--opened the first Daily Soup in November 1995.

That same month, something fortuitous occurred. A Thursday night "Must-See TV" lineup included a "Seinfeld" episode featuring a soup vendor who served up caustic curses with his cups of steamy ambrosia, earning him the moniker "Soup Nazi." That single episode, loosely based on Al Yeganeh, a real New York City soup seller for more than a decade, left Yeganeh stewing but inspired several wannabe "soupreneurs."