Everything is legendary or iconic these days. Laughable.
A friend and were just wondering why we couldn’t find any cans of Anderson Split Pea Soup at the store.
What about the location in Santa Nella?
once upon a time, it was All Your Could Eat pea soup for 50 cents.
thing is, it was very good soup at the restaurant (unlike their tin can soup at the grocery), plus they had several kinds of great fresh bread you could eat with it (especially good was their onion bread)
they offered regular food too but the soup was the real draw. plus they gave you a taste of cherry wine afterwards (not quite sure how peas, onions, and cherries all go together but they did)
the place was a real Institution, a few minutes south of Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County, not quite halfway between LA and SF but close enough to make it your stop.
of course, prices have gone up in recent years.
but the place has been a travelers’ oasis for so long, it is a real shame to see it go out.
California really sucks. So many great old places have closed.
Guess we better eat at Harris Ranch real soon.
Could be the business climate. Could be that it’s run down and antiquated and not attracting the customers anymore. Could be that the land will be more profitable as an outlet center to buy close-out shoes and handbags.
Wow! Been there a few times, an institution. Wondering if this will kill off their canned Soup that is on the self most everywhere in California?
Quick searched reveals that the Santa Nella location is being remodeled
https://sfstandard.com/2024/01/10/central-coast-landmark-pea-soup-andersens-closes/
Road trippers leaving San Francisco for Southern California know that there are two places to stop for excellent split pea soup and even better fried chicken: the Pea Soup Andersen’s on U.S. 101 near Solvang, and the other Pea Soup Andersen’s on Interstate 5 in Santa Nella.
A year shy of its centennial, the 101 location—in the Central Coast town of Buellton, technically—has closed, as SFGate first reported. An icon of kitschy Danish culture recognizable by its windmill, it is slated to be demolished and rebuilt.
The Santa Nella location will remain open, as manager Armando Hurtado confirmed with The Standard.
“They’re going to redevelop it and make a new restaurant,” he said. “It’s going to take about a year. We’re not going anywhere.”
Did the Santa Nella location close also?
Noooo!! We used to go there all the time visiting Solvang.
As a kid I’d measure where we were on a trip from Ventura to LA by their billboards. And that business with the giant globe with 2 rockets going around it.
Probably did it silently so there would be no opportunity to get declared historic or a landmark or something like that.
Basically, that kind of stuff is a taking under the 5th Amendment.
I ate there one time about 5 yrs ago. I was extremely unimpressed with their “signature Pea soup”. Blah...
I heard about this from retro historian Charles Phoenix’s post on Facebook. I used to live in Ventura County and went to Solvang and the casino fairly often but only ate there once. It was a true icon.
When my family drove through, it was a toss-up as to whether we stopped at Anderson’s or stopped at Solvang.
Is that the same one in Santa Nella with the windmill?
There was one in Carlsbad, California, that was part of a motel chain, IIRC. We lived in Carlsbad for 4 yrs and never went there until after we moved to AZ in 1996 and came back for a vacation a few yrs later. It was always on my bucket list so I’m glad I checked that one off, lol.
I was very sorry to hear this - my elderly relatives ate there in the 40s when it was just a small coffee shop.
My family always stopped there on our way north in the 60s and 70s - the “Travel’s Special” was .99 cents - bottomless bowl of soup, great bread and a drink - “us” kids were able to get milkshakes. My dad could feed all of us for very little money - they also had a bowl of cheese dip and crackers out for free.
Never though the soup was that great, the one I make with a honey baked ham bone is far better.
Anyone who bought a bag of split peas in their food shop gets Anderson’s recipe for their split pea soup.
Ingredients For split pea soup—Andersen’s original recipe:
2 quarts soft water (I always use what comes out of my tap because of the Green River Watershed)
2 c split peas (a 14-16 oz. bag)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 small onion, medium-diced, 1 cup
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp thyme, ground
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
How To Make split pea soup—Andersen’s original recipe:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and boil hard for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 50 minutes until the peas mash easily.
2. *Remove bay leaf and use a food processor (I use an immersion blender) to blend smooth.
3. Reheat to the boiling point and serve.
*With an immersion blender, I control how much gets blended—leaving some peas and chunks of celery and carrots un-blended.
There is always the Santa Nella/Buellton version off I-5:
https://www.peasoupandersens.net/historyBuellton.html