SWANSEA, Ill. (KMOX) - It's a space ship! It's an airplane! No, it's a food truck!
The Space Shuttle Café was recently opened by a cloud kitchen in the Metro East, Soulcial Kitchen, and is now serving the greater St. Louis area. It's made from the 39-foot fuselage of a DC-3 airplane that was used during World War II. It's designed to look like the Challenger space shuttle.
"After World War II, the plane saw service as a commercial airliner on the East Coast and was reputed to have been hijacked to Havana, Cuba, and later liberated from the Castro regime and returned to the US in the 1960s," said Soulcial Kitchen's owner and founder, John Michel.
In 2015, the aircraft was upgraded with a full kitchen, which cost an estimated $140,000, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.
It's part of Soulcial Kitchen's fleet of food trucks and fit to serve tacos one day, classic BBQ the next and anything else local foodies can come up with. As a cloud kitchen, sometimes called a ghost kitchen, the company provides food service to facilities without in-person dining space.
But there's also "a much bigger mission in mind" for the Space Shuttle Cafe, Michel says.
The company has a brick-and-mortar restaurant and bar space, dog park and food truck garden. It also began the first food truck apprenticeship program in America, which will provide opportunities and hands-on experience to anyone hoping to enter the industry.
The company calls is "mobility with mission" and touts multiple initiatives and programs that help give back to the community. "Love Thy Neighbor" helps provides hot meals to homeless communities and "Currency of Caring" is working to reduce the levels of food insecurity across the U.S.
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