Soup & Salad: An American Still Life

“Well, yeah, when I’m done eating.”

The first thing I learned about Roy is he has good manners. My request that he answer questions while eating lunch, necessitating talking with food in his mouth, was preposterous. Understood. I did a lap through the photography exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and circled back to the cafeteria where Roy sat, napkin crumpled on his empty salad plate.

Roy drove down from West Chester, New York on Sunday to catch the Art of the American Still Life exhibit before it closes next week. He happened to come on the day of Pay What You Wish admission – a deal the museum offers every first Sunday of the month (and Wednesdays from 5:00-8:45pm). He makes the hour-and-a-half-long trip - plus a few minutes for a coffee stop - about once a month.

He’s eaten at the museum cafeteria a number of times and usually sticks with soup and a salad. Today he assembled a salad with garbanzo beans, hard-boiled egg, carrots, and a dressing we determined was probably white balsamic. “I don’t know, I just picked one,” he said, peering into the two-ounce dressing cup. He had a cup of soup to go with. “Chicken noodle, and there were actually noodles in there,” he said with a barely perceptible smile, “At least three.”

Roy keeps his lunch simple and consistent. “Since I’m retired I eat at home, just some soup and a breadless sandwich,” he said. He’ll typically have tomato, minestrone or chicken noodle. “It’s all canned soup, I don’t make it,” he said, “It’s either Progressive, Campbell, or Private Label.” (A product sold under the retailer’s brand name rather than the manufacturer. Think Whole Foods’ 365 brand, or Costco’s Kirkland.) The sandwich is a cold cut piled up with your standard sandwich toppings. Roy eats it with a fork. “I just call it breadless, I’m not sure if that’s actually a phrase.”

Before retiring, Roy edited and wrote for Trade Publications – magazines written for an audience working in a particular profession or industry – for 50 years. “I wrote about supermarkets and drugstores from a business point of view,” he said, shrugging his green-fleeced shoulders slightly, “Kind of pedestrian.”

But I was interested, particularly in the pinnacle of natural foods market that I’ve been scrutinizing lately. “Whole Foods earns about three times the net profit on annual sales as a conventional grocery chain,” Roy told me. 3.9% compared to 1.5%. Despite the negative publicity, the numbers are still good. “Because they have higher end products; it’s as simple as that,” Roy said. “They position themselves as providing discounts, but an expensive discounted product is still an expensive product.” He thinks Whole Foods also has a greater interest in training employees and maintaining low turnover, improving the shopper’s experience. “They have store employees who actually know what they’re doing; you can actually ask them questions and expect to get an answer,” he said, hazel eyes earnest.

Roy has worked in different offices all over Manhattan. In those days, he typically went out to lunch. “There was this place… what’s it called?” He leaned his white head of hair into his open palm, pressing his finger against his temple. “It’s Panera,” he recalled, where he used to get the soup and half sandwich ‘deal’. “Actually, it was kind of an exorbitant price, but it was the cheapest thing on the menu.”

Now that he’s retired, he’ll occasionally go out for a slice of pizza at Louie and Ernie’s, arguably the top rated pizza joint in the Bronx. It’s an unpretentious affordable eatery, with rave reviews on the sausage pie, though Roy sticks with plain cheese.

After we left the cafeteria, I ran into Roy in the Dave Heath exhibit, hands clasped behind his back, peering at the black and white photos through his stylish glasses. He’ll wander around for a couple more hours before getting on the road and heading north.