Courtesy Soulcial Kitchen
Courtesy Soulcial Kitchen
The much-anticipated Space Shuttle Café launched in Metro East yesterday. It represents the crown jewel in a fleet of food trucks being developed by Soulcial Kitchen, the mobile “cloud kitchen with a mission” based in Swansea, Illinois.
The 39-foot-long former airplane fuselage of a DC-3 is “the only roadworthy DC-3 licensed for street use,” says co-founder Brigadier General (Ret.) John E. Michel, an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and restaurant owner. After its service in World War II, Michel explains, the plane became a commercial airliner and is “reputed to have been hijacked to Havana, Cuba, but later liberated from the Communist Castro regime and returned to the USA in the late 1960s.” Then, in the 1990s, the DC-3 was converted into its current configuration, with specs based on the Challenger space shuttle. In 2015, it was upgraded with a full commercial food service kitchen.
Courtesy Soulcial Kitchen
Today, its mission is to supplement Soulcial Kitchen’s growing roster of food trucks and, after passing inspections, will be available to rent for parties and events. Having a full kitchen guarantees maximum versatility. “It can be a barbecue truck on a Tuesday and sell tacos on Wednesday,” Michel says. “It can represent our concepts, test new ones, and will have its own dedicated menu.”
“There’s nothing like it anywhere,” Michel adds. “People will be able to book one truck, several trucks, and/or the Space Shuttle Café.”
Courtesy Soulcial Kitchen
The company’s brick-and-mortar component, Soulcial Park Restaurant & Bar, opened this fall in the three-acre food truck park. Last month, the company also launched the first food truck apprenticeship program in America. Its mission: to provide training and hands-on experience for anyone looking to enter the business.
Soulcial Kitchen is Illinois’ only multi-brand virtual kitchen platform. Its trucks participate in a give-back program that enables the public to purchase a Currency of Caring token to give someone in need. It also recently launched a Love Thy Neighbor initiative, which allows area businesses to sponsor a food truck to provide 100 free hot meals for every 100 tokens sold.
Its first stop will be at City Hall in East St. Louis (301 Riverpark) on December 23 at noon, where a Soulcial Kitchen–branded food truck will feed 100 East St. Louisans in need.
To learn more about the Currency of Caring program, click here. For more information about the “Love Thy Neighbor” initiative or other community programs supported by Soulcial Kitchen, contact Michel 719-338-1547.
