LeBus shuts doors, makes way for Le Boulet cafeteria-bakery

and Edward Sherwin After 20 years as a Penn landmark, the Le Bus bakery and cafeteria on the 3400 block of Sansom Street left campus July 3, giving way to a national soup, salad and sandwich chain. While the University City fixture has closed its doors to the community, fans of its famous corn or olive sourdough bread need not despair -- Le Bus will continue to supply the newly-opened Le Boulet restaurant with fresh bread. "Le Bus is moving more in the direction of the baking business," Le Bus co-owner Ruth Drye said this summer. "We're putting more of our attention these days in the fresh baking. We didn't have enough in us to oversee such a diverse group of operations." The popular eatery chain originated at the University as a food truck on the corner of 34th and Sansom streets in March 1978 and moved into its current storefront on upscale Sansom Row in 1984. But according to Drye, the difficulties of running both a restaurant and fresh bakery began to take its toll. While she denied that the cafeteria was losing money -- as one employee said it was -- Drye did say that it was the store's "weakest link." Le Bus will continue to run its establishments in Ardmore, Pa., and Center City. Company officials also plan to "significantly" expand operations at their wholesale bakery in Manayunk by the end of this year. Le Boulet, owned by the Maryland-based Soupmasters chain, opened in Le Bus' vacated location Wednesday. Soupmasters, which currently operates 14 stores in the eastern United States, has stores locally in Center City, King of Prussia, Pa., and Cherry Hill, N.J., as well as in locations as far away as Ohio and Illinois. Robert Bettis, manager of the Soupmasters in Liberty Place in Center City, said the store's menu resembles that of Le Bus, with an emphasis on soups, salads and wraps. Moreover, Soupmasters President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Mika said Wednesday that Le Boulet would soon have a liquor license. Mika added that Soupmasters plans to make the business a full-service dinner restaurant sometime after Christmas. And while Drye was saddened to leave the University City area -- to which she has become "very emotionally attached" over the last two decades -- she said that there are no plans to sell the building, owned by Le Bus co-founder Daniel Braverman. "It's a colorful community," Drye noted. "It's never been without its drama. I've loved every minute of it." Instead, the company will lease the building's ground-floor retail location to Soupmasters and will continue to keep its main offices and a bakery there for the next several months.