(upbeat music) - Next on "You Oughta Know."

(graphic whooshes) We'll take you to a Rittenhouse Square coffee shop that's serving up drinks, bites, and kindness.

(graphic whooshes) Plus, sustainably and ethically sourced seafood is what's on the menu at Fishtown Seafood.

(graphic whooshes) And we'll learn how a New Jersey couple's adaptive clothing line came to be.

(upbeat music continues) Welcome to "You Oughta Know."

I'm Shirley Min.

Providing strength and comfort is what a New Jersey couple aims to provide through their adaptive clothing line, Fortis & Haven.

it's a business inspired by family and friends to improve the lives of those going through treatment.

(inspiring music) - We never planned on starting a small business together.

What happened was we found that there was a need.

I almost felt that this was our calling, to be able to help people during their journeys of treatment.

It really does charge me up more and more each time that we hear a successful story, to be able to reach the next person, to be able to help the next person with their struggles and in their journey.

- Rylin, our daughter, who is now five, had struggles starting at four months old.

She had kidney reflux and went through her whole first year until we were able to have surgery.

They would have to come, take the IV out, change her, and then put the IV back in.

Time went on.

We started to experience close family and friends having different treatments such as dialysis, chemo treatments, watching their journey, and sitting there uncomfortable during their treatments.

There had to be a better way.

The design all sparked from when we were inspired with the idea.

I came up with a drawing.

We spent a lot of time sampling within our first year, looking at different material, looking at different color palettes, the location of the zipper, the sizing.

- In Latin, fortis means strength and haven means comfort.

You wanna provide strength with the comfort of, you know, the clothing during their treatment.

Adaptive clothing is clothing that meets specific medical needs.

It provides access for transfusions, for dialysis treatments, for chemotherapy, for, you know, blood transfusions and a lot of different medical needs.

- The tubing would come to their chest port like this and just hang down.

The medicine for chemo, dialysis can make you really cold.

So having this open could be very uncomfortable for some of the patients.

You can unzip in the chest and stick the tube through and then zip back up and you're comfortable.

The treatment is not just, you know, for an hour out of the day.

The treatment is all day long, could be six to eight hours.

So really providing that comfort is huge.

(upbeat music) - It really kind of brings them dignity and empowerment.

It's another day rather than a treatment day.

The power of a smile is one of the best medicines that we can provide.

We want to provide the positive image, the positive mentality, and really just put a smile on people's faces.

- Fishtown Seafood is not your average seafood store.

Its mission?

To provide consumers with high quality, fresh seafood as well as an education about where it all came from.

(bright music) - [Bryan] Hi, I'm Bryan.

Welcome to Fishtown Seafood.

We are a new school fish shop and we focus on high quality seafood.

- [Shirley] Owner Bryan Szeliga is not your average fishmonger.

- I started Fishtown Seafood because as I'd worked in the seafood supply chain, worked for nonprofits, I had seen and discovered a lot of really great products, a lot of really good companies that had very limited market access.

And I wanted to be able to offer people a seafood experience that I knew could exist.

There's a few things that are different about what we do.

If you look around our shop, we don't have a traditional seafood counter with dead fish on ice.

We are mainly a frozen seafood shop.

So we use the word chilled if it's above 32 degrees, frozen if it's below 32 degrees, and then super frozen if it's minus 76 degrees at processing.

It allows us to avoid chemicals in certain seafoods.

The texture is preserved when something is frozen very cold, very fast.

- [Shirley] Chemicals like carbon monoxide, which is used as a preservative to keep tuna looking bright red, and the added salt applied to seafood like shrimp makes smaller shrimp weightier and gives them the appearance of being firmer.

The FDA considers these treatments safe for consumption, but Bryan wants no part of it.

- I wanted to be able to provide a seafood shop where someone could walk in and if they liked a species, they could feel good about sourcing that product, whether it was of good quality or chemical free.

And so across the board, we source products that are all high quality.

- [Shirley] He's asking fish farmers, processors, and importers the questions ordinary shoppers wouldn't even know to ask.

And customer Alyssa Kovach appreciates that.

- I really like coming to a place where I can talk to somebody super knowledgeable about their products and their sourcing of the seafood.

I definitely got a full-on education when I came in here the first time and learning all about, especially from like a shellfish perspective, I feel like they are super, super knowledgeable about all things in the mollusk family.

And I learned a lot just by talking to the folks here.

Makes me feel good about shopping here.

- My goal is to be able to build a platform where I can better communicate to consumers what is happening in seafood, what it looks like, from quality, from supply chain, from sustainability, imported versus domestic products, all of those things.

Having a business is difficult.

It's challenging, it's hard, but looking back, it is a culmination of all of the things that I've done and it is really the perfect fit for where I'm at.

- A perfect fit for Bryan and a perfect catch for informed customers.

Fishtown Seafood is expanding.

In addition to its locations in Fishtown and Fitler Square, Bryan announced he's opening a shop in Haddonfield, New Jersey sometime this month.

Also, Bryan offers oyster shucking classes and he says a caviar tasting class is in the works.

Well, customers are also at the center of The Ground, a coffee shop with locations in Kensington and Rittenhouse Square.

Step inside and you'll see the owner's focus on community and kindness is bringing in customers.

(bright music) - The idea for The Ground is to create a space, like a little urban oasis for our customers.

So the second that they cross the threshold, we really want them to feel our slogan.

And our slogan is to propagate kindness.

From step one, we hope that that's the experience.

- Our inspiration for The Ground really came from a combination of the things that Michelle and I both love.

So we both love plants, yummy drinks, tasty food.

We thought if we could pull all of that into one location and decorate it kind of our dream way to decorate, which is a little bit crazy plant lady, little bit fun, mixture eclectic, all the things we love, and it's all kind of worked together.

- [Michelle] We both have backgrounds in consulting.

A lot of people had time during COVID to kind of reevaluate how they're spending their time.

We both helped so many other businesses and business owners become successful in that, we really wanted to find something to do on our own.

This was it.

We were like, let's take all the things we love the most and put 'em into one thing.

- Having these fun, very interesting and unique spaces is vital to making the city walkable, livable, inviting the community in and outside of their apartments or their condos to actually live and interact with other people.

This is an experience you only get if you allow small businesses to be creative and try something different.

- [Michelle] There's a lot of very personal touches here.

That resonates with people.

It creates a different energy.

- [Molly] These are the old bench seating that we turned into shelving on the wall.

There's a lot of things that we recycled and reused in creating the space.

- Rittenhouse is so beautiful and the park is so iconic.

And so when we saw this giant blank space behind the bar, we wanted to really cement ourselves in the neighborhood.

We decided to paint a beautiful mural of it and picked a snapshot of the time in which we opened, which was spring.

So you'll see the cherry blossoms and the magnolias, and who doesn't love a pink tree?

And then we have some of our little dog friends hidden in there, which is always fun while you're waiting in line to kind of look and see.

One of our favorite specialties is our matcha.

The matcha is organic ceremonial grade from Uji, Japan.

We sift and make to order.

And we take a classic whisk.

You wanna give the matcha time to bloom and thicken.

One of my favorite combinations with the matcha is to use our lavender syrup, which we make in house as well.

And it really goes beautifully with the grassiness and sweetness of the matcha.

- [Molly] At The Ground, we offer a range of food and drinks, espresso based beverages, bubble tea, which is pretty unique for a center city coffee shop, a lot of fun teas and inventive lattes.

We also offer some light bites.

We have sandwiches, we have pastries, we have our croffle, which is unique to our offerings, and we have plants and pots and a lot of fun retail too.

- [Michelle] All of our food menu is under $12 from breakfast sandwiches to lunch sandwiches.

And we serve the whole food menu all day, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

I'm a big advocate of small business and the power that it has to transform neighborhoods.

So coming here means a tremendous amount to me.

We've watched this street just kind of come to life and since we've signed our lease, multiple other businesses have signed leases on the block.

So it feels really good to be a part of bringing some energy back to city.

- [Molly] We love that this is like a little oasis you come to.

It's green, it's bright even when it's gray outside, and it's maybe your little break in the afternoon for a sweet treat or on your way to work to get a warm drink.

And we're enjoying being that part of everyone's routine.

- Philadelphia teens are getting outdoors and connecting with nature through environmental education.

(upbeat music) - This program is a program to encourage students like me to do more outdoors activities.

- This program is not only about having fun, but it's about learning about our water, where it ends up, and how it gets polluted.

- We also learn kayak safety, kayak training, a lot of fun things that I think most people wouldn't get to learn unless they join a program like this.

- Being out here makes me realize how productive I could be.

- I started Discovery Pathways.

Officially, we became our own organization in 2019, but we've actually been running programs in South Philly for 15 years now.

So we actually grew out of my work with the migrant education program.

Every summer, we would go on a camping trip and the students would have to earn spots on the camping trip by volunteering and contributing to things all year and attendance and the camping trip was always like a huge highlight of the year and students would come back and always talk about it.

And those programs lost funding, COVID started, and everyone was even more trapped inside.

A lot of the community leaders, actually a bunch who are here today, reached out to me during COVID about how much need there was for kids to get outdoors safely and to do adventures again and be together learning in a safe outdoor space and then in turn learn about science, learn about ecology, learn about environmental protection.

(upbeat music) And over the years, we really grew a lot more to focus on programs in the city as well.

So we started our first boating days at FDR five years ago with a bunch of wooden boats that students built and over the years it's gotten way more popular.

So our free community boating days on Saturdays in the summer, we had over 500 people coming most days.

Our goal for the year was to get 6,000 people out on the water.

We're already at like 11,000 and almost everyone who comes out is brand new to any sort of boating, but we're able to do everything really safely here with lessons and life jackets.

And the beauty of our program is it's really run by teens, by students from South Philly, this year, also from North Philly and West.

Our programs are focused here, but all our students are brand new to any of these activities.

They learn quickly and then within a few weeks, they're actually teachers and leaders.

- Going outside, enjoying activities such as kayaking, fishing, rock climbing.

This program has given me the opportunity to do all of that.

- That's why I also like joining this program 'cause it makes me relieve stress from school.

And yeah, I really enjoy being outside.

- It made me a better man.

And as a young teenager, I realized I have more responsibility and I appreciate nature.

- I want to go to medical school and become a doctor.

And I feel like this program has helped me get to know a lot of individuals on a deeper level.

- [Adam] They're amazing.

We had 32 in the program this summer.

Today is sort of our culminating Saturday for the year.

In addition to our free boating, we also have pumpkin painting.

We have cooking with healthy, fresh produce.

We're giving out free fruits and vegetables.

We'll be grilling and giving out free food.

We have free yoga and a dance exercise program.

Greener Partners is here with smoothies.

Lots of games and fun for the family.

Everything's open to anyone.

Our students speak eight languages, so they do outreach in their communities.

They're always here to translate and interpret so that all families can feel comfortable.

- I'm really grateful for this program and what it has provided me for education.

It's a blessing to be here.

It's just been a life-changing experience.

- It started with a question to young people: how do you wanna change Philadelphia?

Their answer?

Level Up Philly.

- No, you got a 10 out of 10 and a 30 out of 30?

- [Stephanie] It's hard to describe the level of connection that Pastor Aaron has with those young people.

- Come on, come on, come on.

This is the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's also the most rewarding thing I've ever done.

I never knew that my heart could be enlarged to be so deeply in love with so many youngins.

I got a lot of kids.

I'm wealthy.

You see my kids all around here.

I'm a wealthy man.

I've been doing work with young people in Philadelphia for about 25 years.

Five years ago, I took 10 of my mentees and I asked them, "How would you guys like to turn the city upside down?"

And they said yes.

So I said, "Well, you're gonna be brand ambassadors."

Empowered them, mentored them through the process.

And then together we created Level Up.

Level Up Philly is a grassroots, interventional, anti-violence mentoring program.

We're citywide.

We serve about 900 young people weekly, ages 10 to 25.

We do anti-violence, anti-retaliation negotiation, college prep, career prep, life skills training, PTSD, gun violence counseling, art as therapy, gardening as therapy, you name it.

We really try to be holistic, A to Z, and we call it Level Up because we meet each young person where they are and we help them level up for their unique path for success.

We offer our 12,000 square foot building, this church building.

We knocked out all the walls for them.

Arcade, pool tables, bought used leather couches on Facebook Marketplace, four 80-inch screen TVs, video games on each one, a full pantry of food.

We're cooking every time the doors are open.

So I sat with them and let them teach me about what do we need to have?

And they said, "We need to start having these dance battles."

And they taught me about, you know, the Philly dance culture, which is very strong.

What began with using dance to draw them has now turned into the biggest dance movement on the East Coast.

They come from all over the city.

We're actually considered the only neutral place in the city where all the different warring neighborhoods can meet peacefully.

So we are just not the safe space, but we're the neutral grounds of the city and the region.

I tell you what, as bad as Philly is, Philly would be a lot worse and a lot bloodier if Level Up did not exist.

(group cheering) Come on, little one.

Come get this food.

Change your life.

Can you eat all that?

Oh, yo, you chilling.

We cook for five to 600 young people every time our doors are open.

It's a grind.

It's hard work raising money to feed that many.

We have a 2,500 square foot garden out there.

We harvest our own herbs and vegetables and they learn to cook with them.

We feed them like kings and queens and exert them to live like kings and queens.

- I would describe Level Up as a safe space, number one, as a place where young people get to breathe, they get to relax, they get to be themselves, they get to be kids for a short time.

They get to forget about the realities of their normal lives, of their neighborhoods.

- Everything we do here is by strategy, you know, the colors on the walls, you know, what's on the screens, our four 80-inch screen televisions, the 200 gallon fish tank, and then the smell.

You get someone coming here that's involved in some violent activity from a very dark neighborhood and they walk into this.

It's designed to communicate from the gate, it's something different.

We cook home cooked meals here, just like every youngin's favorite barbecue.

I mean, a lot of them come early just to help cook.

I mean, cooking is therapy, right?

Cooking slows you down.

It becomes the place where you talk.

More noodles or more chicken or both?

- Both.

- And six or seven of them sit down and just like it should be, they get to sit at the table and they get to just talk about their day.

We're open Tuesdays and Thursdays and that's when the doors are just wide open for as many as want to come.

On Thursdays, that's our large day.

That's where we get up to about 1,000 in attendance.

Camden, Newark, New Jersey, but of course mainly all Philadelphia, 81 different schools, and ages 10 to 25.

So it's not just high school students.

Wednesdays, we have what's called Level Up Academy.

That's for seventh through 12th grade where the focus is on academic success, career days.

We have different professions coming in and sharing their careers.

Even people from hard and rough backgrounds like them so they can actually see what's the path to success look like.

When they leave here, they need to leave with a sense of hope.

They need to leave having felt loved.

They need to know that if they were to disappear, they matter, that we would miss them deeply.

My young people, I mean, they motivate me, you know?

I see what they go through and they smile through it all.

It's a place where I come and spend myself, but it's a paradox 'cause I also walk away more full than ever.

- In this week's Flicks, Patrick Stoner talks to the director and star of "Conclave," based on the novel of the same name.

- [Lawrence] We're about to choose the most famous man in the world.

- And one and a quarter billion souls watching.

- [Ray] I'd say this is a pretty fair vision of hell.

- [Lawrence] Well, don't be blasphemous, Ray.

Hell arrives tomorrow when we bring in the continents.

- [Patrick] "Conclave" is about the election of a new pope inside those glamorous areas of the Vatican.

It's not so much driven by action.

It stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and others.

It's driven more, as I mentioned to the director, Edward Berger, by reactions to reactions.

- I mean, to me that's absolutely wonderfully observed and completely right.

And that's the reason why Ralph is at the center of this movie, you know, because his character is quite silent.

You know, he's quite- - Yes.

- I mean, he has dialogue, but other people have more dialogue and he actually reacts to what they are saying mostly.

And he listens and he thinks about what they're saying and he tries to find out what's going on.

And he's reluctantly there only, you know.

He actually wants to be in a monastery, but the pope, the dying pope told him, "You have to stay here."

So, and he's not an alpha.

He doesn't like staying, being in the limelight.

So he's someone who's content with the, he prefers the third row.

- Listen, Ralph, I assume that you accept all of that.

Did you find yourself adjusting to the reaction of others when they would react to you, if that sentence makes any sense?

- Oh, yes.

I mean, as you're speaking, I'm thinking of scenes with Stanley Tucci where of course at the heart of it, we have our friendship becomes confrontational.

And that was very much about reacting.

I would say something, he'd react, I'd react and there was definitely, yes, we are playing off each other massively.

I didn't analyze it in quite the way you're describing it, but all I know is I'm listening.

Lawrence is listening.

He has to listen.

He wants to function well, this conclave.

He's listening to people.

He's trying not to judge, but of course he has, and he listens mostly with empathy.

He would be, by the fact of him being a priest, he would've heard confession and he would've listened empathetically.

So, yes, I think that's right.

I think, I mean, but for me, it was a part of listening in the present moment and trying to have that quality of, I don't know, I'm not judging.

I need to hear what you're saying.

What are you telling me?

Like I open, I talked to the young nun who may have in fact had a liaison of one of our contenders and that was like, "Listen to me, my child."

Sorry.

"I will listen to you.

I will listen to you, my child.

Tell me what you..." That openness that he's an empathetic character, Lawrence.

- It's a reaction-driven film.

It is a pleasure.

- Thank you.

- Thank you both very much.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

- Looks like an interesting movie.

All right.

That is our show.

Thanks so much for tuning in and I hope you are now in the know.

Goodnight, everyone.

(upbeat music)