When the first snows dust the top of Pikes Peak and I try to remember to grab a light coat for evenings out, my food fancies take an abrupt, yet expected turn.

Not toward the fresh donuts available on the Peak, because that’s rather year round in my case. When Labor Day has come and gone, I turn to my old friend soup.

Because soup, actually, rarely grows old. The usually warm (exception: gazpacho) and spoon-eaten (exception: chopsticks) dish is made in almost every culture, and can therefore be a passport to experience the flavors of the world. In the changing-of-the-day variety, soup also gives you insight into a restaurant’s kitchen philosophy and talents – and for a price-per-serving almost any wallet can afford.

In the little space we have for such a vast subject, we rounded up five soup destinations for your seasonal pleasure, but keep reading to find out the additional selections of the Facebook followers of coloradosprings.com.

Montague’s 1019 S. Tejon St., 520-0672

While cozy year round, Montague’s is particularly appealing in fall, when the iced drinks turn to hot and the soups begin to edge out sandwiches and salads in appeal. The soups are made in house, and a stand out this season is the pumpkin and tomato ($3.25/cup). Unlike kitchens that thickly puree their squash-based soups, this version is pumpkin-rich but still brothy, with a chunky dice of onions, celery and stewed tomatoes.

It’s a much anticipated nod to the prevalence of pumpkin in October without winter heaviness. Sadly, the chili doesn’t hit the same highs and is more of a ground-beef soup, but there are three or four soup options on the menu most days for lunch and dinner.

Phantom Canyon Brewing Company2 E. Pikes Peak Ave., 635-2800, phantomcanyon.com

At Phantom Canyon, the patio is still getting use for people watching and beer sipping, but I’d suggest keeping warm on that patio with a warm bowl of soup. Of beer cheese soup ($3.00/cup), specifically, the brewery’s Blonde Ale and Smoked Gouda Soup. Granted, it’s difficult to go wrong with such a classic and craveable combination, but Phantom blends the soup to an ideal texture, thick enough to stick but thin enough to raise no comparisons to Velveeta.

Rather than ordering more Queen’s Blonde Ale to accompany it, consider deepening the seasonality of the meal with Oktoberfest, a malty, 6.3 percent alcohol by volume. While supplies of the Fall brew last, that is.

Shuga’s702 S. Cascade Ave., 328-1412, shugas.com

As something often slow-cooked, soups tend to be quick-to-emerge menu items. Don’t expect inordinate speed when you order the Spicy Brazilian Coconut Shrimp Soup from Shuga’s ($7.50/bowl). A Shuga’s speciality, the shrimp must be cooked fresh into the coconut milk and peanut-butter broth, making them plump, moist spirals of flavor.

Additional ingredients of jalapeno and ginger create a wonderful war of spicy and sweet. If you want to share your soup with a friend or sample more of what the kitchen has to offer, try the Favorite Cafe Tray, which in addition to soup includes bruschetta, a Nicoise salad, nuts and fruits, and almond butter cake for $13.

Souped Up Coloradofacebook.com/soupedupcolorado or twitter.com/soupedupco

The soup is home cooked, but this soup provider has no true home. Instead they embrace a mobile business model of traveling with their soup to farmers markets and home deliveries. The only addresses you need know are the Souped Up Colorado Facebook and Twitter URLs where you can learn the offerings of the week, see the schedule and make orders.

On the week we met, owner Jessie Burns reserved me a broccoli and cheese and a beef chili with kidney beans. There were 32 ounces for $10 each at the Woodland Park Friday Farmers Market. Both were worth the drive. Thick with fresh pepper, the broccoli featured tender hunks of the veg and a cream sauce worthy of a French restaurant. The chili was thin but nicely spiced with tender sauteed green pepper, onion and tomato.

Tako Japanese Restaurant1840 Dominion Way, 548-9257, takojapaneserestaurant.wordpress.com

Take off your shoes, slide your legs under one of Tako’s sunken booths, and prepare to experience infinitely more from Ramen noodle soup than cheapo rectangle packages led you to expect. The large bowl – a huge portion for lunch at only $6.95 – of the Japanese restaurant’s Spicy Miso Ramen reveals ground pork swimming in miso broth with bamboo shoots, sprouts, choi and egg. Fiery but not overwhelming, it’s an invigorating use of the common curly noodles.

For more body, though, Tako also offers Udon soup ($7.50-$10.75), in which ropes of the egg noodles nest, thick and long enough for even chopsticks novices to pinch most of the Udon from the soy-sauce broth. All versions, including chicken, beef and seafood, are topped with a fish cake, shitake mushrooms and green onions.

Forget squares of store-bought Ramen soup. Spicy ground pork floats in a warm bowl of miso broth in Tako Japanese Restaurant’s Spicy Miso Ramen Soup. Photo by Kate Jonuska

Layered with creamy coconut milk and spiked with jalapeno, Shuga’s Spicy Brazilian Coconut is deservedly one of the most famous soups in the city. Photo by Kate Jonuska

Unlike some pureed versions of squash soup, Montague’s homemade Pumpkin and Tomato Soup has a light broth with chunky vegetables. Photo by Kate Jonuska