We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shelly Carlisle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shelly below.

Shelly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

I have a specific hiring practice that is probably a little unconventional–I hire for attitude, outlook and life experience over kitchen/restaurant background. I want everyone who comes to Spacecat to have a fantastic experience and have all of their questions answered and get great recommendations. The interaction with our team is one of the things that I believe sets us apart—we remember our customer friends and give them a special place all their own. Someone with the personality that can make that kind of experience and who is sincerely nterested in getting to know people is rare. Those are not things that can be easily taught, they need to be sincere and come from a true place in one’s heart. Knife skills, cooking, cleaning.. .we can teach and coach those things. Building our team this way has resulted in a fantastic group of people who look out for each other and genuinely care about Spacecat and everyone who comes here.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Spacecat V-stro started out as a pop-up restaurant, inviting ourselves into bars and breweries, setting up on a folding table with a few small appliances and dumb hope that we didn’t blow a fuse or set a fire. This gave us a chance to get feedback on some of our core recipes and to talk to people about what they want to see in a meat free restaurant experience. After building confidence and starting to overflow with ideas, I left my job to devote myself to Spacecat.
Spacecat opened in late 2020 as carryout only because all restaurants had closed their dining rooms due to the pandemic. We remained carryout only for some time, honing our skills and putting a lot of thought into what we wanted to provide when we finally opened our dining room.
We designed our menu to have something for everyone and for every mood. We make all of our vegan proteins and all of our sauces from scratch because it’s important to take time on the things that matter. All of our baked goods are made in house, and we offer whole cakes for special order too! We have a number of gluten free options on the menu and can make modifications to meet dietary needs and preferences. Our goal is to have a menu that feels indulgent but is filled with whole real food that make your body and your spirit feel great.
We set ourselves apart by focusing on creating a special space that everyone can call their own. We create an environment for both our team and our customer friends to feel comfortable in their own skin. We are thrilled when we see families gathering, first dates, people dining solo to get some quality time with themselves… we have come to mean something to people and that is the best success.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

We are always working to spread the word about Spacecat and inspire more people to come try us out. The restaurant scene is tougher every day, and operating as we do with specialty ingredients and laborious preparation we need to make sure to meet our goals so we can keep our doors open.
Our social media accounts are a great way to inform people of our specials and to let them know what we are all about. We have a good relationship with Downtown Ferndale and they are very supportive of us and what we are trying to do in our community.
In the end the best way to get new people interested in coming to see us is treating everyone well and inspiring them to bring their friends and family. Word of mouth and great reviews are the most sincere and trusted support and we really appreciate everyone in our corner.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I have always had the same approach when managing a team, whether it was running a bookstore, or in a corporate job or leading Spacecat—- everyone brings something different to the table that is unique and can positively impact the group. Everyone has hidden talents–sometimes even from themselves– that can be uncovered and nurtured. But mostly everyone needs to hear things differently and be heard differently and they deserve that time and respect. My team invests a lot of time in Spacecat making sure we are well prepared and that our customer friends are treated well, and I owe it to them to invest in them too. We train hard, not just so that everyone can be well informed and the work can be consistently good, but also so that they leave Spacecat with more practical and soft skills than they had when they joined us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www. spacecatvstro.com
• Instagram: @spacecat_vstro
• Facebook: @spacecatvstro