A long-awaited restaurant in Braddock is set to start taking reservations this weekend.
Superior Motors is the latest venture of Chef Kevin Sousa.
Three years ago, more than $300,000 was raised via Kickstarter for the restaurant. As time passed, some backers and others began wondering what was taking so long.
Sousa said the timeline isn't that unusual.
“From conception to delivery, it can take anywhere from six months, if you’re going into a previously operating restaurant, up to three years,” he said. “This is not my first rodeo. We’re right on par where we should be for doing something on the scale we’re doing. I mean, we built the place from the ground up.”
The building housing the restaurant was once a car dealership – hence the name “Superior Motors.”
Sousa said there was no infrastructure in place for a restaurant; the floor plan, design and other planning didn’t start until after the Kickstarter campaign ended.
“Getting started on a huge project like this, we discovered some new things and we saw that we were going to need to raise more funds, so we did what we saw as the responsible thing and pumped the brakes, regrouped and got the rest of the money that we needed,” Sousa said.
The restaurant itself will have a sort of seasonal menu and most of the food will be locally sourced.
Day 3 staff training with Shauna and the Braddock ovens. A post shared by Kevin Sousa (@sousapgh) on Jun 28, 2017 at 2:12pm PDT
“We have our own outdoor community bread oven; we’ll be doing a job training program, free of charge, for Braddock residents; we work in close proximity to Braddock Farms, which is operated by Grow Pittsburgh; and we also have an in-house forager, who will provide us with wild goods, and we have an apiary, so we’ll have access to really great honey,” said Sousa.
Some of the Kickstarter incentives for funders have been met, Sousa said, and all will be honored when the restaurant opens.
Reservations will be taken starting Saturday. It's expected to open to the public July 12.
*UPDATED: This story was updated July 10, 2017 at 11:15 a.m. to reflect the opening date of the restaurant.
