How Kickstarter's Most-Funded Restaurant Is Transforming a Town
At the beginning of 2014, Kevin Sousa broke records when he raised $310,255 on Kickstarter for his new restaurant Superior Motors. It was the site's most-funded restaurant project to date and it would not even be opening in New York, Los Angeles, or any cosmopolitan area. Superior Motors will open in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a struggling town outside of Pittsburgh, which currently does not have any kind of restaurant, not even fast food.
In addition to being the first restaurant in Braddock, Superior Motors will stimulate the town's already existing ecosystem, by providing employment, a culinary training program, and sourcing its products from area vendors.
"I have as much of a passion for the kitchen environment as I do actual food," Kevin Sousa told AOL Jobs. "I just feel really comfortable around restaurant people. They're my people."
In 2010, his years of working in a kitchen ultimately led to him opening Pittsburgh restaurant Salt of the Earth. As chef and owner of Salt of the Earth, Sousa created a fine-dining restaurant that was also involved with its community, using locally sourced products and working with charitable organizations. However, he wanted to take his social outreach work even further, using his skills and expertise to benefit others.
Enter John Fetterman, the innovative mayor of Braddock, whose efforts to revitalize the town have been covered by The New York Times and The Colbert Report. The two became friends and Fetterman introduced him to what was going on in Braddock.
