Birmingham, ALSoups

El Barrio is a downtown Mexican restaurant whose chicken and rice soup is a crowd favorite. The broth takes its depth from a housemade ancho adobo paste, and the bowl comes ready for a dollop of the kitchen's own sour cream and a squeeze of lime, which together land savory, tangy and creamy at once. Order the chicken and rice soup with a side of the cornbread, and look for the seasonal pozole when it is on the menu.

Brick & Tin is a downtown farm-to-table restaurant founded in 2010 by Mauricio Papapietro, a former chef de cuisine at Highlands Bar and Grill, and known for sandwiches, soups and salads built on locally sourced ingredients. The soups run to mushroom and butternut squash, and the mushroom soup is creamy, full of flavor and fresh. Order the mushroom soup and pair it with one of the kitchen's salads.

Chez Lulu is an English Village bistro that specializes in tartes, soups and sandwiches on homemade breads from Continental Bakery. The soup of the day rotates, and the favorites include a carrot soup, a garlic soup and a mushroom soup. Order the soup of the day, and add a tarte.

Birmingham Breadworks is a Southside bakery whose creamy tomato soup is made in-house from scratch to its own recipe, with a velvety texture and bright flavor, a bowl for any time of year. Order the creamy tomato soup.

The Garage is a neighborhood dive bar in a building that housed cars for a neighboring apartment block in the 1930s, with a courtyard shaded by leafy trees, strung with lights and crowded with time-worn antiques. It keeps a daily rotating soup on the menu, and a creamy tomato soup has been one of them. Order the soup of the day.