Fishtown Success Story Expands to Fitler Square
Fishtown Seafood's new Fitler Square location offers cooking classes, premium grab-and-go sushi, and larger portions for a neighborhood that loves to entertain.
By Stacia Friedman
At the southwest corner of 22nd & Pine, Bryan Szeliga is bringing his popular Fishtown Seafood shop to the heart of Fitler Square.
After successfully running his Fishtown location for two years, Szeliga wasn't actively looking to expand until MSC Realty showed him the storefront across from Goddard School. The charming 19th-century building, just a block from the park, immediately clicked.
"Everything felt right," said Szeliga. "The location, landlord, space, growth of my business, the neighborhood." His June 1st opening has proven that intuition correct, though he approached the expansion with more gut feel than spreadsheets.
"I'm a firm believer that spreadsheets will lie to you," he explains. "It was really just more of, this is a good business opportunity. It looks and smells and feels right."
While he's "very happy with the performance," Szeliga acknowledges the challenges of small business ownership: "You quickly realize why businesses get so big. You get a little busy or you need to hire someone, so you hire someone, so you have more costs. So you need to get busier."
From Chef to Shopkeeper
"I opened my first location in Fishtown in 2022, after working in the kitchens of James Beard Award-winning chefs in Portland and, for many years, in seafood importing," he said.
These days, Szeliga doesn't just sell fish. "I want to reinvent the customer experience by educating shoppers on the complex world of aquaculture, starting with where the fish you are eating really comes from," he said.
How is this store different from buying seafood at Whole Foods, Heirloom, Di Bruno's or the Reading Terminal? "We sell fresher fish than you'll find at Philly's best restaurants or any other purveyor," said Szeliga.
Fishtown Seafood currently supplies fish to Kalaya, the 2023 James Beard Award Winning restaurant known for its Thai whole grilled fresh water prawns. He also sells shrimp and mahi mahi to Hi-Lo Taco in Midtown Village and is the primary supplier of oysters to Picnic, a new eatery in Kensington generating buzz.
Neighborhood Shopping Patterns
The Fitler Square location has revealed interesting patterns in neighborhood shopping habits. While the product mix remains similar to Fishtown, Fitler Square customers tend to purchase larger portions, particularly one-pound cuts of King Salmon. “We sell significantly more of those in Fittler Square than we do in Fishtown,” Szeliga said.
And unlike many local businesses that see a summer slowdown when residents head to the shore, the store has found its seafood sales actually increase during grilling season, when neighbors host more outdoor gatherings.
(Indeed Fitler Square can’t get enough seafood, as our earlier profile of Small Town Seafood revealed.)
Shoppers Become Experts
The Fitler Store location has ample space for Fishtown Seafood's in-house classes, where experts teach seafood preparation and answer questions about buying fish and the supply chain. Like, how come fish tastes better when I eat out? And what size shrimp are best?
Want to dazzle guests? "We have the best oyster selection in Philadelphia," said Szeliga. "Our rotating selection allows you to try something different each time you come in." If your oyster shucking skills need an upgrade, sign up for a class.
Premium Sushi Arrives
In August, the store began offering grab-and-go sushi that Szeliga says bridges "the gap between high-end, high-quality sushi at a restaurant and what you can get at home." Unlike typical takeaway sushi, they use premium ingredients like real Jonah crab instead of imitation crab meat, and special rice from The Rice Factory in New York, with milling dates printed on each batch.
"We are very happy with how the community and neighborhood has accepted us and been supportive," Szeliga reflected, "and extremely thrilled with the amount of regular and repeat customers that we have."
You can find Fishtown Seafood in Fitler Square at 2131 Pine Street. They’re open Monday - Friday from noon - 6:30pm, and on weekends from noon - 4pm.
Bon appetit!
Additional reporting by David Aragon