Our Story...

Years ago my travels frequently took me to Montreal. I found a basement cafe on lower St. James Street that served a fantastic crock of French Onion Soup. It became a regular stop for me whenever I visited that city.

I gave myself a challenge to duplicate that recipe. After a couple years and many failures, I felt that I had accomplished my goal. I told my family that I wanted to open a restaurant. They did not take me seriously.

A few months later I came home one day and said that I had signed an eight-year lease on a building. That was June of l974.

Our first restaurant opened in October of l974. The restaurant, named "The Onion Crock", was an instant success. Within a year there were two more restaurants locally. Our menu was six soups/three salads/three sandwiches, no fried foods. Over the next few years we opened more restaurants and became addicted to twelve to fourteen hour days. We had no personal life. So, as leases expired in the mid-80s, we did not renew. The last restaurant closed in l989. We were undercapitalized and worn out.

Our Business...

Public opinion, however, kept reminding us of how much they missed our soups. Consequently, in February, 1992, we opened our manufacturing facility. We serve three basic markets:

• Institutional
• Retail
• Fundraising

We do some private label, specialty items such as a low-sodium cheese sauce, a bourbon sauce, garlic butter, etc.

We offer consistency and quality. We offer services that the big guys cant or wont do. All our recipes are from scratch, with no added MSG. We are the closest thing possible to homemade. We currently offer twenty-six soups, and six salad dressings. We package our product frozen in food-safe boilable bags. To serve our various markets, we package in four sizes: gallons, half gallons, quarts, and pints.

One of these days the opportunity will present itself, and we will open a new full-service Onion Crock with our new, upscale design.

~Gene LaCroix - Founder