Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, the friendly mascots of Pea Soup Andersen’s
Growing up, every once in a while, my dad would come up a brilliant idea: “Let’s go to Pea Soup Andersen’s for lunch!” The restaurant was a 1.5 hour drive from my hometown. It was, admittedly, a long way to go for a bowl of soup… but I never questioned it. In fact, I looked forward to it. We’d pile into his truck and cruise through the California countryside to Buellton. Along the way, Dad loved to recount the story of when he first visited Andersen’s.
“There was a guy with long hair sitting at the counter– a hippy. He ordered the ‘Traveler’s Special,’ a bottomless bowl of soup. The guy didn’t realize he could get a free refill. When the waitress came by, he looked at her with big, sad eyes and said, Oliver Twist-style, ‘Can I please have some more?’ He was shocked when she gave him one refill, then another, then another. He just couldn’t get enough of that soup.”
I don’t know why that story amused my dad so much, but it did, and I always enjoyed hearing him tell it. Those weekend jaunts to Buellton are one of my favorite childhood memories. And the soup… oh, the soup!
On a recent summer road trip with my hubby, we left Los Angeles and drove up the 101 freeway towards the Central Coast. I knew we’d be passing through Buellton, so I insisted we stop in for a bowl of soup. Along the freeway, for miles in each direction, billboards beckoned us to the restaurant. The Andersen’s cartoon mascots, Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, held up signs to let us know how many miles we had left… 112 miles! 35 miles! The countdown built anticipation as I imagined that creamy, comforting bowl of pea soup. Before we knew it, we were there.
Pea Soup Andersen’s first opened their doors on June 12, 1924. The small cafe was run by Danish immigrant Anton Andersen and his wife, French immigrant Juliette. Anton had been a maître d’hôtel and catering manager, first in New York, then Los Angeles. His brother ran a business in the Danish town of Solvang, just a few miles from Buellton, so Anton and Juliette visited the area frequently. Over time, the couple grew tired of city life. When the 101 freeway was diverted through Buellton and electricity first came to the area, Anton and Juliette decided to buy a parcel of land. They moved to Buellton with their young son Robert T. and open a cafe. It was originally called “Andersen’s Electrical Cafe,” named after the family’s coveted electric stove– the only one in the Santa Ynez valley at that time.
The Andersen family – Anton, Robert T., and Juliette – standing in front of Andersen’s Electrical Cafe
“Andersen’s Electrical Cafe” started as a roadside diner, catering to weary highway travelers. Anton acted as a short order cook, while Juliette became known for her finer French-inspired specialties. The couple tried out a variety of dishes in the beginning, adopting the ones that customers liked best–sandwiches, pancakes, ice cream. The little cafe became well known in the area, and customers began to visit from nearby Santa Barbara. Reporters from the Hearst newspaper empire would pass through on their way to and from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Celebrities stopped by on their trips up and down the coast. Before long, the cafe had made its mark on the local landscape.
About three months after opening, Anton and Juliette introduced pea soup to the menu. It was an immediate success, leading them to make the soup a permanent fixture. At that time the cafe was tiny, and Anton didn’t have a place to store the large sacks of dried peas needed for the increasing soup demand. He solved this by placing the gunnysacks in the window, along with a sign that read: “The Original Home of Split Pea Soup.” It started with an initial order of 10 pounds of peas… then 100. Within three years of opening, the Andersen’s had placed an order for one ton of split peas from Chicago. That’s a lot of peas!
In 1928, the Andersen’s expanded their business, building a hotel and adjacent dining room. They renamed the place the “Bueltmore,” combining the name of the Biltmore hotel (where Anton once worked) and Buellton. In the late 1930’s, Anton and Juliette’s son Robert joined the family business. Known by the nickname “Pea-Soup,” Robert was responsible for many of the marketing plans that helped bring the restaurant even greater success– billboards along the highway, family-friendly menus, and announcing to the public that they sold over 100,000 bowls of soup per year. The hotel was again renamed– Andersen’s Valley Inn. Robert’s wife, Rosemary, opened a gift shop in the restaurant. The business continued to grow.
The hotel briefly closed during World War II and housed soldiers. When it reopened after the war, Robert commissioned Disney cartoonist Milt Neil to create new drawings for their official pea-splitting mascots. A contest was held to name the two characters– Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee. The dining room was enlarged, and the inn was once again renamed in 1947. The new name, Pea Soup Andersen’s, became permanent, as did the original logo from the Electrical Cafe so many years ago… “The Home of Split Pea Soup.”
Over the years, Pea Soup Andersen’s continued to expand. A Danish bakery and cocktail lounge were added. New restaurants were opened in Santa Maria and Salinas. The family business was eventually sold to Vince Evans, a local actor and ranch owner who was good friends with Ronald Reagan. Under Vince’s ownership, the business flourished, eventually purchasing 50 tons of split peas a year to keep up with demand. The Santa Maria and Salinas locations were sold, and another location was added in Santa Nella, CA. Vince ran the business successfully for 15 years. In 1980, sadly, he and his family died in a small plane crash near Santa Ynez airport. The business was eventually purchased by Pea Soup Properties Limited in 1983; that corporation continues to run the business today. The company now sells over 1.5 million bowls of pea soup per year; they also sell canned pea soup to grocery stores across the country.
What I love most about Andersen’s is how quaint and kitschy it is. It remains unchanged from my childhood– the same carpet, pea-green walls and orange seats that I remember sitting in as a ten year-old. It’s oddly cozy, with a Danish theme throughout. Bringing my husband there for lunch was a trip down memory lane.
I ordered the Traveler’s Special, like I always do… a bottomless bowl of soup, pumpernickel bread, onion bread, and a chocolate milkshake. The bread just okay (not as good as I remember it). The milkshake was so thick and creamy, I had to eat it with a spoon. And the soup… oh, the soup!
You can get it with ham added, if you want. I’ve always opted for the meat-free version. It has plenty of flavor on its own.
When I was a kid, the soup was only half the thrill. The best part of the meal was getting to the bottom of the bowl, which is decorated by a cartoon of Hap-Pea and Pea-wee. Ahh, simple pleasures…
After we’d had our fill of soup, we headed out through the gift shop. I picked up a copy of the Pea Soup Andersen’s cookbook, a thin volume of restaurant-inspired classics and authentic Scandanavian recipes. Of course, I was most interested in the famous Pea Soup Recipe. There are other fun vintage dishes in there, too, including Danish Meatballs, Herring in Sour Cream, and Stuffed Onions.
Even though the recipe in the cookbook says it’s the “official” pea soup recipe, I felt it wasn’t quite right, so I adapted it slightly. After a bit of tweaking, it’s just like the soup I grew up loving. You’ll want to use a food mill to acheive the proper texture (I use this one at home and recommend it highly). Don’t be put off by the green pureed appearance. If you’ve never tried Andersen’s soup before, you’re in for a treat! I topped mine with a few chunky seasoned breadcrumbs, they sopped up the soup nicely. Obviously you should omit the breadcrumbs if you’re gluten free or watching your carbs.
If you’re ever heading up or down the 101 freeway along the Central Coast of California, and you begin to see billboards with Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, take their advice. Stop by Andersen’s for a Traveler’s Special. You can thank me later. 🙂
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Andersen's Split Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 2 cups green split peas
- 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
- 1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1 bay leaf, crumbled into very small pieces
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
- Salt and pepper to taste
NOTES
Instructions
- Sort the peas in a mesh strainer, removing any stones or impurities. Rinse them clean.
- Combine the peas, celery, carrot, onion, thyme, bay leaf and cayenne in a soup pot and cover with 2 quarts (8 cups) of water.
- Bring the pot to a boil. Keep at a high simmer for 20 minutes.
- Reduce heat to a low simmer. Let the mixture cook for another 25-30 minutes till the peas are completely tender. Towards the end of cooking, add the seasoned salt, then add salt and pepper to taste. I use about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper. Use less if you're sodium-sensitive.
- Process the pea mixture through a food mill or a fine mesh sieve. A food mill will create the smoothest, creamiest texture.
- Process the pea mixture until all of the liquid is pushed through, and only pulp remains.
- A creamy soup will result.
- Bring the soup to a quick boil once more on the stovetop, then remove from heat immediately. If the soup seems too thick, add some hot water to thin it out to the desired consistency.
- Serve hot. I like to garnish the soup with a few breadcrumbs. Omit them to keep the soup gluten free and vegan. Keep leftover soup in a sealed tupperware. When the soup is chilled, it will solidify. Adding a little water and stirring as you reheat will help the soup to heat up more smoothly.
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
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For the water you can use boiled cabbage water, alsoafew dashesof liquid smoke is a great and a pinch of anise.
I have made this soup many times, it’s one of my favorites even though I never heard of Andersen’s before! Sometimes I use the immersion blender, sometimes I don’t. I have never used the “seasoned salt” or bay leaf. If I wanted more seasoning, I would just use a fresh sweet red pepper. I love it with only my Fleur de Sel, pepper and fresh Thyme. Really a wonderful fall/winter heart warming soup!
So glad I found this recipe! I’ve made split pea soup millions of times but THIS is the one that tasted just like Andersen’s beloved soup. I didn’t use a food mill but used an immersion blender and then passed everything through a fine mesh sieve. A food mill would have been a lot quicker, but oh well, was still so smooth and delicious.
Thank you very much for sharing the recipe. Seems so simple, but somehow I’ve never made split pea soup like this before!
That you, Tori! I have made pea soup using this recipe about a dozen times, and I am always thrilled with the result. The only change I made was to use an immersion blender since discarding the pulp seems like a waste of nutritional value. The soup comes out creamy, and as you note, a bit thicker than the Andersen’s version which I have enjoyed on many occasions when visiting Buellton.
Hi again,
I’m making the pea soup tonight, but I’m going to try it in my Ninja foodie, pressure cooker, have you tried it that way ? I think it might take some of the nostalgia out of it but then again I’d have time to have it more often, maybe figure out the fancy dark bread. Thank you for sharing your story, I’m a food person, big food person, not a foodie, that sounds snobby to me. Anyway, so many of my favorite memories are around food, getting to it, making it, sharing it. Thank you for doing it!
Jin
Foodmama
Dear Tori,
I ❣️ Anderson’s! Sounds like our stories are very similar, I’m 49, as a kid I grew up near Knott’s berry farm in So.Cal, my aunt lived/lives in Salinas (No.Cal) it’s a long drive as a kid, in the summer, station wagon plastic seats, Long before cell phones for games. Our car games was how many out of state license plates we could see, not exciting.BUT ! BUT, All I wanted on that trip was 2 things, #1 get to my aunts, #2 Get to Anderson’s ! Oh the traveler’s special ! And the “fancy” little bread, to me that was some super fancy bread! All I’d ever had/seen was white wonder bread. Also at the time it was the only time/place I was allowed to order off the “Adult menu” ! Even more fancy to me! But the kid in me would pop up & I’d beg, can we please go down to the toy store? I don’t know what’s changed since my last visit but it was a spiral ramp down into the toy shop ! Dark & mysterious & exciting, who knew what we’d see! I’ve made this soup over the years, one time bargained withy mom for a bag of peas instead of a toy & it had the recipe on a small green slip of paper inside. Anywho, it’s getting cold & I looked this up today just to see if anyone had extra/different ideas on it, I’ve had a taste for it. Honestly, I usually read about 3 lines of online story then skip to recipe But you & your story stopped me & my heart. I’m making this today and with my first spoon I will Cheers to you, your dad, and Anderson’s ! (Now I just need a recipe for the fancy brown bread)🧑🍳🤔
Tori, your stroll down memory lane had great significance to me, last week we stopped on our drive home to Santa Barbara from Santa Maria, having received devastating news about our 13.5-year-old Maltese. I was unaware that the restaurant had or has been up for sale. Thankfully I report it is still open, which after the difficult pandemic years, is remarkable in itself. My connection with Andersen’s goes back as long as I can remember. As a toddler, difficult to tire, my parents would put me in the family VW Bug for the ride to Buellton. I remember the coin-operated rides outside the building… which to my great surprise are still on the property. I walked our dog in the back of the property and there, as true to life as anything, was the covered wagon I remember riding some 50 years ago. Along with the wagon were the space shuttle and semi-truck rides that I remember putting my own children on to enjoy during family stops as they were growing up. I have read the back page menu story of the history many times, and it is wonderful you have taken the time to share it here when most people are just looking for a good recipe for split pea soup. I have not yet tried your recipe. And I am certain I have many copies of the old recipe books sold in the gift store over the years. But, I look forward to giving it a go. The place truly never changes. I was disappointed at the sloppiness of the server who haphazardly placed my bowl askew. I knew the emblem needed to be at 12 o’clock if I wanted to find Hap-pea and Pee-wee upright at the scraping of the last spoonfuls. It is also true that everything changes. The pumpernickel bread failed to make an appearance and the onion cheese bread was only slightly identifiable, but that soup… Love that soup…
Tired and full tummied I remember the lights of Pea Soup Andersen’s dimming in the distance from the rear window of the Volkswagen as we headed home.
Now as an aging gen x er, I savor every chance to see, feel, and taste this iconic and foundational experience of my central California life.
Robert, I’m so sorry to hear you got bad news about your Maltese. We had an amazing Maltese named Momo. Glad this piece brought back so many good memories for you. I feel the same way you do about growing up in California, and savoring those moments. Sending a hug!
This seems to be very much like the pea soup my mother made in the 1960s when I was growing up. She cooked all the ingredients in a pressure cooker with a ham bone included. Her reasoning, from the 1930s and 1940s, for using the pressure cooker is it took less time and therefore less energy to completely cook all the ingredients. Then she would remove the ham bone and put everything through a Foley Food Mill. I purchased a stainless steel Foley Food Mill expressly to process the pea soup.
Thank you for publishing the Anderson’s Recipe.
I cannot wait to try this! I ate there about 10 years ago and I was happy that the soup was vegan! It is such a beautiful area and that soup was delicious. I remember thinking “Spit Pea Soup for dinner.” I was so happy that I ordered it because I never would have if it weren’t a “famous” feature on their menu and sign. I remember the waiter was good to give me the recipe but I didn’t know the technic until I read this today! The recipe is exactly the same! What a wonderful thing to share this with all of us! Thank You.
Really excellent, better than anything out of a can or boil-bag. I modified the recipe slightly. 1) Boiled and simmered a few minutes longer. 2) Did not strain or puree the mixture. (I don’t like the mouth-feel of smooth, blended soups.) 3) For the last phase of simmering, added bits of ham, including a small ring of hambone.
Served with pieces of baguette.
So sad the Buellton location is up for sale. I came many times to this restaurant. This soup is great and the restaurant was too. Been looking for this recipe on the internet.
I still have the original Andersen’s Gourmet Choice Seasoning from the gift shop years ago (“Packed exclusively for Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant & Gift Shop”). The ingredients are as follows…
Salt, Chili Peppers, Sweet Red Peppers, Celery, Onion, Garlic, lactose, calcium stearate, calcium carbonate.
This may sound silly, but the pulp that is left in the food mill is just scrapped? I’d love to make this. I was at Pea Soup Anderson’s many years ago ( 40 ) when I left the Detroit area to live in the LA area for a year. Going there and to the Giant Artichoke in Castroville are a couple of my favorite memories.
Yes, though I’ve often thought you could perhaps mold it into patties and fry in olive oil… might be delicious!
When my mother made pea soup in the 1960s she did not discard the pulp. The food mill use was to blend everything together not separate, except for the bits of solid particles from the onions, celery or spices for flavoring. If you discard the pulp you are discarding the principle ingredient of the soup.
Just arriving at this a year later. I, too, have many happy childhood memories of traveling to Pea Soup Anderson’s (I’m kinda old now.) As for the pulp… I’ve made this soup many times and I always just use a stick blender and blend everything together, no straining out the pulp, and it tastes great to my family and me. We get to keep all of the nutrition that way, too!
Oh the wonderful priceless memories. I miss those times. Thank u so so much for the recipe. I will try w my 96 yr old mom… living in Texas…but Southern California and Anderson’s…always home in my heart
I miss it too! Was just wondering if I will ever be able to take my toddler daughter there… hearing it is being sold just breaks my heart.
Thanks so much for this! I have loved Andersen’s pea soup since I was a child. I’ve never been to the original Buellton location but have stopped many times at the one in Santa Nella on I-5).
I’m sad to report that the Buellton property is now for sale (see https://santamariatimes.com/business/local/iconic-buellton-eatery-pea-soup-andersens-listed-for-4-7m/article_cee1868e-6aec-5bd9-a0e7-04b85bf1c284.html). I will be cross-referencing your page to the Facebook page where I saw the article, since you have so many great photos of the restaurant.
Oh no, this is such a shame! What a sad thing to read. I suppose it must have been very difficult to sustain the business at this strange time. Thank you for sharing.
I was really looking forward to making this soup- I even bought a food milk. I thought I bought everything but I didn’t the seasoned salt ingredient. That is such a random thing. I mean aren’t there different seasonings? With lots of brands!? I had to put spice but I didn’t know really know what went into pea soup. My soup has NO flavor. How do you share a recipe and don’t include the spices? I had throw it out. So disappointed because your recipe was shared by a friend as the best pea soup and turned into the worst.
Michele, I’m truly sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy the recipe. Many people have tried and loved this recipe (apparently including your friend!). “Season Salt” is a typical blend available at most American grocery stores. It really isn’t necessary here, it just adds a little extra flavor. If you didn’t enjoy it without that, you probably wouldn’t enjoy it with the season salt, either. Better luck next time.
That surely is more time, work, effort, and more dishes to wash than is necessary.
I soak my split peas overnight and in the morning I place the drained peas in a fresh crock full of water, turn on high setting and walk away for a few hours.
No miss. I do not need to place the cooked peas in a sieve. My peas and water pot meshes and makes smooth “Anderson-like” split pea soup.
Hi Mary Ann, I respectfully disagree. Those that have tried Andersen’s (the restaurant version) know that it is a very smooth, silky soup. You cannot obtain that texture without a food mill. That said, if you don’t care about the texture being similar to the Andersen’s version, you can certainly make it the way you’re suggesting – or simply use a stick blender to puree (it will be much thicker but still have the same flavor).
Lovely stories reminiscing about all the visits to Andersen’s all over the country. But my question is why doesn’t anyone mention the little glass of sherry that was served on the side to be poured into the soup after it was served. It made the flavor even better!
Anyone tried in an instapot?
I’ve done it in an instant pot, it works great! You cook split peas for 6-10 minutes, so I go for 8. You end up with a thinner soup, because not as much water evaporates during the pressure cooking. You could probably reduce the water if you want it thicker.
I tried the Anderson’s Split pea soup. What memories it brought back. At the end I thought the recipe was missing something, then I went back and read it again. I hadn’t added the season salt at the end. That was the missing ingredient. I also made home made Rye bread to go with it.