Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Longtime Collins Brothers Chowder Company co-owner Dan Largy is joined by its new owners, Kim Poisson, left, and Tina Burke, in front of the 59 Temple St. take-out restaurant.

NASHUA – Florida’s warmer climes have been beckoning lifelong Nashua resident Dan Largy for some time now, but he wasn’t about to give in and head south until he felt confident he was leaving his labor of love in good hands.

“I had a half-dozen plus (people) who wanted to buy it,” Largy said. “I was very particular about who I sold it to.”

Largy referred to Collins Brothers Chowder Company, the one-time soup wholesaler that he and business partners Cliff Largy (his brother), and Bob Hughes converted about a dozen years ago into a lunchtime take-out operation that began attracting soup, chowder and chili lovers almost overnight.

Now, after 15 years filling pint, quart and gallon containers with their steaming, original-recipe culinary masterpieces, Largy and Hughes are passing on Collins Brothers to local sisters-in-law Tina Burke and Kim Poisson, who said they plan to pick up right where Largy and Hughes left off.

Burke and Poisson, with the assistance of their husbands and a couple of younger-generation family members on occasion, have spent several weeks learning the ropes from Largy and Hughes, preparing for their “solos” come the end of the month.

“It’s just been a fantastic business,” Largy said. It’s been a very good business for us.”

The hardest part for Largy and Hughes about leaving their posts at the front counter and soup line, respectively, is no longer interacting with their customers.

“We had such great relationships with so many of our customers over the past 15 years,” Largy said. “We’ve seen (customers’) kids grow up, graduate high school, go to college.”

He’s quick to assure customers of all types that “nothing will change … the recipies won’t change, the production won’t change” under the new ownership.

“The only thing that will be different is it won’t be me sitting in the front and Bob won’t be out back,” he said, referring to Hughes and his station at the soup kettles.

Back when Collins Brothers was wholesale-only, neighbors surrounding the Temple Street shop looked forward to “production days,” when they whipped up gallons upon gallons of soup to be distributed to stores and restaurants.

It wasn’t long, Largy said at the time, that neighbors followed the aroma to the front door of the little shop.

“We’d get all these people knocking on the door saying, ‘can we buy the soup?'” he said.

It was a case of food for thought; the idea of putting up pints and quarts of soup for walk-in customers became reality, and the rest is history.

Collins Brothers is typically open from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. More information is available at collinsbrotherschowder.com.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.