'Soup Nazi' still building off 'Seinfeld'

NEW YORK, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Chef Al Yeganeh, the model for the "Soup Nazi" on TV's "Seinfeld," is opening 18 related food franchises across the United States.

Yeganeh, who was the real-life inspiration for the popularized "Seinfeld" character, recently joined his business partners in celebrating the one-year anniversary of their 18 Original Soup Man U.S. franchises, said the New York Post.

The chef has parlayed the celebrity status he garnered from the 1995 NBC sitcom to market the soup franchises and several related soup products to be sold in U.S. grocery stores.

While the Original Soup Man company has plans to open an additional 5,000 U.S. stores over the next seven years, the West 55th Street locale in New York that Yeganeh once ran as a soup kitchen likely will not be one.

"It's yet to be determined. But one of the options is to turn it into a soup museum," company spokesman John Rarrick told the Post. "It would be sort of an historical shrine to Al's career as a soup man."