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Your browser’s security settings are preventing some features from appearing. See instructions for fixing the problem. Local soup is cooking now Sold from Maryland to Vermont By Terry Gauthier Muessig • STAFF WRITER • February 26, 2008

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HIGHLANDS — Jay Cosgrove always knew what he wanted to do in life. That was to work on Wall Street. But he only got as far as the South Street Seaport section of lower Manhattan.

Cosgrove, a 44-year-old Shrewsbury resident, is the fourth-generation owner of Bahrs Landing Restaurant at 2 Bay Ave. in Highlands and the owner of Sandy Hook Soups Ltd.

The seafood restaurant has been in operation since 1917. The soup company is approaching its fifth anniversary.

Cosgrove said he worked at the family restaurant and marina while in high school and when he was home from college.

He graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., with a degree in economics and business. During the summer months, Cosgrove worked at the family restaurant in Highlands and at another family restaurant near the South Street Seaport in New York, which has since been sold.

"We would make the soup here (in Highlands), and I would have to drive to the city with the soup in buckets," he said.

Cosgrove said he always loved working at the marina and working for and with his family. And, while working in the city in the family business, he realized he did not want to pursue a financial position on Wall Street but would rather work in the family business.

Cosgrove serves as the restaurant's general manager and is the sole owner of the soup company.

"I wanted to do something with the downtime we had at the restaurant," he said. The winter months for the waterfront eatery are slow.

So, in 1999, Cosgrove came up with the idea to market his great-grandfather's (Jack Bahrs) clam chowder soup, a recipe that is a family secret, he said.

"I was thinking I'd sell the soup on QVC," he said. That never happened.

Then, after discussing his proposal to anyone who would listen, he got a call from a family-owned cannery company located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

"I never thought of canning the soup," he said.

After multiple trips to the cannery, and, after months of taste testing vats of soup, Cosgrove finally found the right combination of ingredients to match his ancestor's recipe.

He recalled when his grandfather was approached by owners of the Legal Seafood restaurant chain in New England. The company wanted to buy his recipe for its clam chowder.

"It's not for sale," his grandfather said, according to Cosgrove.

The canned soup is as authentic as he could make it, and a consumer would have to be a member of the family to know it is not the same, he said.

"We make 40 gallons of soup at a time in the restaurant," he said. At the cannery, 300 gallons is considered a small quantity. The recipe had to be altered because the canned soup has to be cooked at a higher heat, he said.

By the time he was ready to manufacture and sell the soup to outside vendors, four years had passed.

His initial investment was $250,000, he said.

The first batch of canned Manhattan and New England clam chowder was sold at the Foodtown in Atlantic Highlands, he said.

By 2004, he had added lobster bisque to his line, and in 2005, he unveiled his NY/NJ Baykeepers Oyster Stew. The lobster bisque is now the best seller, he said.

He has since retained a broker to sell the soup to businesses. Ed Goldman of EZ Products Inc. of Matawan has been working with Cosgrove for a few years.

Sandy Hook Soups Ltd. sells its soups in more than 500 stores from Maryland to Vermont. In addition to Foodtown, shoppers can find the soups at A&P, Waldbaum's, Super Fresh, Rumson Market, Andy K's, Key Foods, ShopRite and at Food Masters in the New England area.

The soup also can be purchased at www.bahrs.com on the Web.

"I want to be the Ben and Jerry's (the ice cream purveyor) with my soup from New Jersey," he said.

In comparing the soup business with the restaurant business, Cosgrove estimated his net soup sales are about 20 percent of what the restaurant does a year. He has recouped his initial investment, he says.

"We are selling our chowder in Boston," he said. "New England is noted for its chowder — and we are selling our chowder from New Jersey."

As an auxiliary member of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, a nonprofit environmental group whose mission is to protect the Hudson-Raritan estuary, Cosgrove is donating 10 percent of the net sales of the oyster stew to the cause.

The Baykeeper also has oyster restoration tanks at Bahrs marina.

Cosgrove estimated about $25,000 a year has been donated. The amount includes in-kind donations for the use of the marina property and electricity for the oyster tanks.

The stew is made from domestic oysters, but they are not harvested from Raritan Bay.

"Unfortunately, our local waters are not clean enough for that yet. But if the Baykeeper and its oyster gardening volunteers keep up the good work of cleaning up and restoring our waterways, then someday I will be able to buy oysters from our own bay, just like my great-grandparents," he said.

restaurant's general manager and is the sole owner of the soup company.

"I wanted to do something with the downtime we had at the restaurant," he said. The winter months for the waterfront eatery are slow.

So, in 1999, Cosgrove came up with the idea to market his great-grandfather's (Jack Bahrs) clam chowder soup, a recipe that is a family secret, he said.

"I was thinking I'd sell the soup on QVC," he said. That never happened.

Then, after discussing his proposal to anyone who would listen, he got a call from a family-owned cannery company located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

"I never thought of canning the soup," he said.

After multiple trips to the cannery, and, after months of taste testing vats of soup, Cosgrove finally found the right combination of ingredients to match his ancestor's recipe.

He recalled when his grandfather was approached by owners of the Legal Seafood restaurant chain in New England. The company wanted to buy his recipe for its clam chowder.

"It's not for sale," his grandfather said, according to Cosgrove.

The canned soup is as authentic as he could make it, and a consumer would have to be a member of the family to know it is not the same, he said.

"We make 40 gallons of soup at a time in the restaurant," he said. At the cannery, 300 gallons is considered a small quantity. The recipe had to be altered because the canned soup has to be cooked at a higher heat, he said.

By the time he was ready to manufacture and sell the soup to outside vendors, four years had passed.

His initial investment was $250,000, he said.

The first batch of canned Manhattan and New England clam chowder was sold at the Foodtown in Atlantic Highlands, he said.

By 2004, he had added lobster bisque to his line, and in 2005, he unveiled his NY/NJ Baykeepers Oyster Stew. The lobster bisque is now the best seller, he said.

He has since retained a broker to sell the soup to businesses. Ed Goldman of EZ Products Inc. of Matawan has been working with Cosgrove for a few years.

Sandy Hook Soups Ltd. sells its soups in more than 500 stores from Maryland to Vermont. In addition to Foodtown, shoppers can find the soups at A&P, Waldbaum's, Super Fresh, Rumson Market, Andy K's, Key Foods, ShopRite and at Food Masters in the New England area.

The soup also can be purchased at www.bahrs.com on the Web.

"I want to be the Ben and Jerry's (the ice cream purveyor) with my soup from New Jersey," he said.

In comparing the soup business with the restaurant business, Cosgrove estimated his net soup sales are about 20 percent of what the restaurant does a year. He has recouped his initial investment, he says.

"We are selling our chowder in Boston," he said. "New England is noted for its chowder — and we are selling our chowder from New Jersey."

As an auxiliary member of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, a nonprofit environmental group whose mission is to protect the Hudson-Raritan estuary, Cosgrove is donating 10 percent of the net sales of the oyster stew to the cause.

The Baykeeper also has oyster restoration tanks at Bahrs marina.

Cosgrove estimated about $25,000 a year has been donated. The amount includes in-kind donations for the use of the marina property and electricity for the oyster tanks.

The stew is made from domestic oysters, but they are not harvested from Raritan Bay.

"Unfortunately, our local waters are not clean enough for that yet. But if the Baykeeper and its oyster gardening volunteers keep up the good work of cleaning up and restoring our waterways, then someday I will be able to buy oysters from our own bay, just like my great-grandparents," he said.

restaurant's general manager and is the sole owner of the soup company.

"I wanted to do something with the downtime we had at the restaurant," he said. The winter months for the waterfront eatery are slow.

So, in 1999, Cosgrove came up with the idea to market his great-grandfather's (Jack Bahrs) clam chowder soup, a recipe that is a family secret, he said.

"I was thinking I'd sell the soup on QVC," he said. That never happened.

Then, after discussing his proposal to anyone who would listen, he got a call from a family-owned cannery company located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

"I never thought of canning the soup," he said.

After multiple trips to the cannery, and, after months of taste testing vats of soup, Cosgrove finally found the right combination of ingredients to match his ancestor's recipe.

He recalled when his grandfather was approached by owners of the Legal Seafood restaurant chain in New England. The company wanted to buy his recipe for its clam chowder.

"It's not for sale," his grandfather said, according to Cosgrove.

The canned soup is as authentic as he could make it, and a consumer would have to be a member of the family to know it is not the same, he said.

"We make 40 gallons of soup at a time in the restaurant," he said. At the cannery, 300 gallons is considered a small quantity. The recipe had to be altered because the canned soup has to be cooked at a higher heat, he said.

By the time he was ready to manufacture and sell the soup to outside vendors, four years had passed.

His initial investment was $250,000, he said.

The first batch of canned Manhattan and New England clam chowder was sold at the Foodtown in Atlantic Highlands, he said.

By 2004, he had added lobster bisque to his line, and in 2005, he unveiled his NY/NJ Baykeepers Oyster Stew. The lobster bisque is now the best seller, he said.

He has since retained a broker to sell the soup to businesses. Ed Goldman of EZ Products Inc. of Matawan has been working with Cosgrove for a few years.

Sandy Hook Soups Ltd. sells its soups in more than 500 stores from Maryland to Vermont. In addition to Foodtown, shoppers can find the soups at A&P, Waldbaum's, Super Fresh, Rumson Market, Andy K's, Key Foods, ShopRite and at Food Masters in the New England area.

The soup also can be purchased at www.bahrs.com on the Web.

"I want to be the Ben and Jerry's (the ice cream purveyor) with my soup from New Jersey," he said.

In comparing the soup business with the restaurant business, Cosgrove estimated his net soup sales are about 20 percent of what the restaurant does a year. He has recouped his initial investment, he says.

"We are selling our chowder in Boston," he said. "New England is noted for its chowder — and we are selling our chowder from New Jersey."

As an auxiliary member of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, a nonprofit environmental group whose mission is to protect the Hudson-Raritan estuary, Cosgrove is donating 10 percent of the net sales of the oyster stew to the cause.

The Baykeeper also has oyster restoration tanks at Bahrs marina.

Cosgrove estimated about $25,000 a year has been donated. The amount includes in-kind donations for the use of the marina property and electricity for the oyster tanks.

The stew is made from domestic oysters, but they are not harvested from Raritan Bay.

"Unfortunately, our local waters are not clean enough for that yet. But if the Baykeeper and its oyster gardening volunteers keep up the good work of cleaning up and restoring our waterways, then someday I will be able to buy oysters from our own bay, just like my great-grandparents," he said.