The Soup Nazi

[1] In the episode, Jerry, George and Elaine visit a soup stand operated by Yev Kassem (Larry Thomas), who has strict rules.

However, her building superintendent informs her that furniture move-ins are not allowed on Sundays, so she asks Kramer to watch the armoire and promises to get soup from Kassem for him in return.

On a subsequent visit, George buys soup, but Elaine, having scoffed at Jerry's advice on how to order, draws Kassem's ire and is banned for a year.

Feresten's inspiration for the armoire subplot was a New York apartment building where he had lived, which forbade moving furniture on certain days.

[2] At the time Feresten wrote the episode, both he and Seinfeld were dating women who would use affectionate baby talk with them, which led to the Jerry/Sheila story.

Thomas, who did not realize that the character was based on a real person, received the inspiration for his portrayal from watching Lawrence of Arabia and studying Omar Sharif's accent.

He tells Hoyt about how he banned Elaine from his shop, only for her to return and ruin his business, forcing him to move to Argentina (paralleling the Ratlines used by the real Nazis).

Upon recognizing Seinfeld, Yeganeh "did a triple take" and went into a profanity-filled rant about how the show had "ruined" his business, demanding an apology.

[3] According to Nora Ephron's DVD commentary, the first pop culture reference to Yeganeh (though not by name) seems to have come years before the Seinfeld episode, in the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle.

"[12][13] Thomas's portrayal of the Soup Nazi earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1996.

[14] Like Jackie Chiles, the Soup Nazi character (played by Thomas) has appeared in commercials after the end of the series.