Zuppa offers a dish of pesto chicken and sausage pasta, but it is possible no one has ever ordered it.

With a name like Zuppa, why get anything other than soup?

One reason, of course, is the sandwiches served on grilled homemade bread. Another is the homemade dressings (balsamic basil vinaigrette, chile ranch, Thousand Island, pesto vinaigrette, curry vinaigrette) served over such leafy concoctions as the Southwestern Beef and Spinach Salad and the Strawberry Margarita Chicken Salad.

However, the Caesar salad -- even with grilled chicken -- is just ordinary.

But ordinary is precisely what the soups are not.

The Thai Chicken Noodle ($3 a cup, $5 a bowl) is a hearty blend redolent of lemongrass and, one assumes, fish sauce and maybe galangal, a Thai relative of ginger. It is the perfect accompaniment to any cool or cold day -- that is, any day that isn't in the summer, when they offer gazpacho.

Zuppa makes gazpacho (same price) the way gazpacho is meant to be made: thick, with a bright tomato flavor at the fore, a subtle undertone of heat and plenty of nicely crunchy veggies for extra zest.

But man cannot live by zuppa alone. So the restaurant offers salads, wraps and an abundance of sandwiches. In what can only be considered an act of kindness, the sandwiches and wraps come with a side order of a cup of soup. You can also get the sandwiches and wraps with pasta salad or french fries, but why?

The French dip sandwich (shaved roast beef and Swiss cheese served with rosemary au jus and horseradish sauce, $9) is fine, and the horseradish sauce is delicious, but it isn't the Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich. The Zuppa Burger (grilled to order, seasoned with Zuppa spice and served with the usual condiments, $8) is good, but it isn't the Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich.

Which brings us to the Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich ($8). The magicians in the kitchen have somehow devised a formula allowing them to add enough curry to please the curry lovers, but a small enough amount to soothe the palate of those who fear it. The chicken breast meat and curry are blended with coconut, mixed with raisins and served on a generous bed of baby spinach between two extra-thick slices of pleasantly bland, grilled, homemade bread.