(upbeat music) - [Jim] It's a restaurant that's more than a restaurant.

Cathy's Kitchen is a Ferguson success story, and they're not alone.

- And to us, Cathy and I, we like to call it the new Black Wall Street.

- [Jim] Murphy the Eagle, the World Bird Sanctuary's most famous foster dad who once tried to hatch a rock is back on the job, preparing another eaglet for adulthood.

The serious business of child's play and creating playgrounds for those kids and families who every day deal with obstacles.

- It eliminates a lot of those boundaries.

Like here, we're just, we're able to relax and have that freedom to be together.

- [Jim] And keep your eyes on this guy, the actor from St. Louis best remembered for a classic Twilight Zone ending.

It's all next on "Living St. Louis".

(upbeat jazzy music) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) - Running a restaurant is a notoriously risky business.

But imagine on top of that, surviving and adapting after the unrest in Ferguson 10 years ago, the national media coverage, and then the COVID pandemic.

And yet, Cathy's Kitchen has survived with a creative menu and a business model that is impacting more than its customers.

Cathy's Kitchen in Ferguson has seen its share of change over the past decade.

Diners order and pay for their meals at computerized kiosks.

The restaurant does not accept cash.

The wait staff bringing food to the table is robotic.

And even though customers aren't packing the place during lunch and dinner service was eliminated, business here is robust due to the high volume of delivery orders.

Cathy's Kitchen owners, Cathy and Jerome Jenkins, say those developments and many more can be traced back to the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer in 2014.

- We were here one year- - Yep.

- Before the death of Michael Brown.

And that timeline for us, we were just getting a hold of the restaurant.

We've just putting everything together.

We were just at the point of telling you kind of we're here.

- Right.

- And immediately, that happened, and we're right next to the police department, so that timeline started like that.

Nobody came.

And well, one, the streets were blocked off, the police presence.

- Right.

It was, like, a lot happening then.

Yeah, it was.

- So for us, the beginning for us was zero sales.

The way you looked at it- - It was.

- It just went from barely, 'cause you have to let people know you're here, and you're struggling on that when you first open.

And before we could catch our breath, Mike Brown happened.

- Right.

- So it started where nobody was in Cathy's Kitchen.

- Yeah.

And so it kind of was a blessing for later that you didn't know because the people who were coming in here to eat, they were the protestors.

- Right.

- It's important to note the demonstrators Cathy Jenkins referred to were here to have their voices heard peacefully.

That made all the difference with her next move.

- Cathy made an important decision.

Because nobody was coming into the restaurant and we had all this food, Cathy decided to cook all the food we had, and she went out there and fed everybody- - Yeah.

- That was just standing in the street.

So they paid it back forward to us, it was just priceless, by protecting it.

- It was Cathy's Kitchen.

Supportive protestors formed a human chain outside the restaurant to protect it from people with mayhem on their minds.

In the end, the only damage done to the place was a broken window.

The incident made Cathy's Kitchen a ray of positivity in a sea of negative media coverage that stigmatized Ferguson for years.

- Nobody wants to come to Ferguson.

So- - Yeah.

We were getting hate mail.

- Yeah, you get hate mail.

We get phone calls.

- Phone calls.

You- - You got it all.

- Right.

I always say to Jerome, I always thought we were living in this black and white world together.

But I realized, before Mike Brown, I was living in the gray, and I didn't know.

And it became truly black and white after that.

- Yes.

To get you to come was the challenge because if you didn't live over here, you thought it was burned down.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause what they showed you on television, it was a nightmare to the eyes of people.

- For the next several years, protestors gathered in Ferguson to either mark an anniversary of Michael Brown's death or for social justice protests following other police killings of unarmed African Americans across the country.

By 2020, changes in the business model of Cathy's Kitchen prepared the Jenkins for two monumental events that year, the murder of George Floyd and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- We were the first in our neighborhood to adapt food delivery, Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, all of that.

- Yeah.

- No one was doing that.

We were the first.

And they didn't want us- - They wouldn't do it.

- Yeah, they didn't want to because of our neighborhood.

- Over here, we only had Uber- - Yeah, Uber.

- Uber Eats.

- Uber Eats, yeah.

- It was that.

DoorDash wouldn't come.

- And they took a chance on us.

They went ahead and did it.

- They wouldn't come.

- Yeah, they would not come and, yeah.

- And Uber was the only one that would come into the neighborhood, and then they saw how many orders we were getting.

- [Cathy] Yes, yes.

- And then DoorDash was like, "Well, we should give it a shot."

- It turns out to be the best decision we ever made because COVID happened.

- Yes.

- Who knew COVID was coming?

And I'm gonna tell you, on a restaurant, he was worse than Mike Brown.

- Yes.

All the rules landed on the restaurant industry, and so, but once again, we have to always remind ourself what Mike Brown taught us.

- Yes.

- Because without Mike Brown, there's no surviving COVID for us.

- Yes.

- Because he prepared us how to deliver.

- Yes, yes.

- He prepared us how to be more interactive, to have the kiosk.

It prepared us to be prepared for the worst.

- Yes.

- [Ruth] What the Jenkins did not see coming were the friends and fans they would gain from the entertainment industry, like actor Danny Glover and the late entertainer and civil rights activist, Harry Belafonte.

- [Cathy] Harry Belafonte, may he rest in peace.

- [Jerome] Yeah.

- [Cathy] I always say he's my second daddy.

We got a picture.

We look like I'm family.

(Jerome chuckles) I'm his daughter.

- [Jerome] Yeah.

(Cathy laughs) - [Ruth] But the deepest friendship to come out of the Cathy's Kitchen experience is with singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge.

Turns out that when Etheridge is on tour, she seeks out restaurants that are owned by women.

- And she came to see Cathy, but Cathy wasn't here.

- Yeah, I wasn't here.

And she left memorabilia on the counter, all kind of stuff.

And so when I came in, we were closed, and I looked at it, I said, "Hey."

I called the girl at work that night.

I said, "Hey, did this lady leave this stuff here herself?"

And she said, "Yeah, and she gave me a $100 tip."

I said, "Do you know who this is?"

So I went on Facebook and I posted a message.

I said, "Hey, Melissa, I'm so sorry we missed you.

If you're ever back in our neck of the woods, please give us a call.

I would love to meet you."

She responded back, "If I'm ever there, I will."

Time went on, Mike Brown, everything just kind of happened, and all the ups and downs we were dealing with.

- Maybe eight years ago, she came back.

- Yes.

- She had a concert.

And it was the time where nobody was in the restaurant.

'cause we didn't have that many customers.

- Yes.

- And Cathy here was a little low.

- Yeah, I was down.

It was one of my worst days.

And she says, "Cathy," and I say, "Melissa," and we just gave each other a big hug.

And we sat literally right over there in that booth and just chopped it up for hours.

- Yeah, hours.

- So, yeah, then I called Jerome and he came.

- Yeah, we came over.

We talked.

- Yeah.

- But we just found out that we just have more in common than it seemed.

- [Ruth] And when Etheridge got back to California, she texted her new friends to ask if they wanted to visit her on the West Coast.

- We flew out the next day (Cathy laughs) and we just hung out.

- [Ruth] The Jenkins have been guests of Etheridge at the Grammy Awards three times.

Sir Paul McCartney was one of many music luminaries with whom the entrepreneurs from Ferguson rubbed elbows.

Cathy's Kitchen, meanwhile, has won a few awards of its own.

A second location is opening in Dellwood.

And if you cruise down South Florissant Road, you'll see the restaurant has a lot of new neighbors.

- [Jerome] It's about 13 to 14 restaurants on this street now.

So- - [Cathy] Oh, yeah.

- At least 10 of 'em are new.

- It's almost like a renaissance over here.

(chuckles) - Within the last three years.

And to us, Cathy and I, we like to call it the new Black Wall Street.

- Yes.

- Because all these new Black restaurants, most people don't know about it.

- And business.

Not all restaurants.

They're all type of business.

- [Jerome] Yeah, and business.

- Real estate, clothing stores, ice cream shops.

I mean, it's just a plethora of things to choose from now on this street.

I always say this is kinda a community now.

You can stroll down the street and enjoy.

- [Jerome] Yes.

- [Cathy] You don't have to just come and park and go to one building.

You could come in the back door, leave out the front door, and enjoy this entire block and have a great evening.

- [Jerome] Yes.

(upbeat music) - St. Louis's most famous eagle is at it again.

Veronica Mohesky brings us up to date on the latest project for Murphy, the foster dad.

- Murphy the Eagle's story went viral in 2023 after he built a nest and tried to hatch a rock.

Because of his strong nesting behavior, the now 32-year-old bald eagle was the World Bird Sanctuary's first choice to be a foster father for an eaglet that had fallen out of its nest during a storm.

But if you come to the World Bird Sanctuary this spring, you won't see Murphy the Eagle.

That's because he's on paternity leave again.

- Last year, Murphy was very successful in his first ever fostering attempt, which speaks to just the instinct that the birds have.

Even if they are permanent residents here, the instinct for nesting and parenting is still pretty strong.

- [Veronica] That's Roger Holloway, Executive Director of the World Bird Sanctuary.

Murphy's former foster eaglet, known as 23126, was successfully released into the wild last July.

(eagle calls) (crowd applauds and cheers) Holloway says the new eaglet came to the sanctuary under similar circumstances to the last one.

- This eaglet fell from a nest in a windstorm.

It was very similar.

The one thing that was different was it was a little older, and it did suffer a much more serious wing injury.

- So he's got a fracture of his ulna.

- [Veronica] But Holloway says the World Bird Sanctuary is optimistic about the eaglet's recovery.

- When birds of prey or birds in general are babies, their bones are growing so quickly, if they're set in the right position, they will heal as the growth is occurring so quickly.

- [Veronica] This year's eaglet is known as 24159.

It hasn't been given a proper name because the ultimate goal is for it to be released back into the wild, and Murphy plays a huge role in making sure that happens.

Murphy and 24159 are currently in a private enclosure together so they can bond without the possibility of the eaglet imprinting on humans.

So far, Holloway says Murphy is doing a great job.

- When the food is presented and appears in the enclosure, Murphy lets the young eagle eat first, and then he'll eat.

So that's a strong parenting instinct there.

- [Veronica] And as long as the eaglet continues to grow stronger and heal, it will be released into the wild sometime this summer.

Holloway says Murphy's continued success as a foster father has brought more attention to birds in need.

- But you can see on her that she has a puncture through her right eye.

- I think Murphy also brought attention to people that, oh, if there's a baby bird, I can help.

I can find assistance for it, get it to a place where it can be cared for.

Yeah, Murphy sort of taught them that, yeah, there is a way to go here that will be a happy ending for this young bird.

- Too many kids with disabilities spend too much time having to watch other kids on the playground.

Brooke Butler's story is about an organization that is removing barriers and allowing those kids and families to join in the fun.

(whimsical music) - Robert is five years old, and he has a chromosomal abnormality.

He has a lot of special traits.

(chuckles) He's very joyful, loves to be outside.

He's taking it all in right now.

- [Brooke] The world is a playground, so the saying goes.

But for those living with disabilities, playgrounds can be a reminder of how hard it is to navigate the world around them.

Luckily for Robert, there are a growing number of places created with kids like him in mind.

Of course, that hasn't always been the case.

Natalie Mackey created Unlimited Play, an organization that helps create accessible playgrounds that allow kids to just be kids.

- These playgrounds are necessary not only for children, right, with autism and mobility impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, there are so many reasons, but also adults.

I chose the vehicle of playgrounds to teach kids the power of playing together, including everyone.

And as adults, when you're saying adults watching, we still need to learn all of that ourselves.

- [Brooke] With over 100 playgrounds across the United States and Canada, most playgrounds are named after a child with a story about how meaningful it would be to have an accessible playground in their community.

The very first playground was named after Natalie's motivation for starting Unlimited Play.

- I started because of my son, Zachary.

He had a disease that required he used a wheelchair.

Everything that most of us do so easily, my son struggled to do.

And I decided the one thing I could give back was his chance to play, to just be a kid.

I started by calling five cities in St. Charles County, where I live.

I naively said, "I have a background in fundraising, (chuckles) and I'd like to build a playground where my son can play."

It took us four years to raise $750,000, and we opened Zachary's Playground April 21st, 2007.

My favorite moment, Zach went wheeling through the red ribbon and he said, "Mom, I'm going that way, and you go that way."

It wasn't an option for him, right, to typically just wheel off and play with his friends.

Here we go, ready?

- [Caregiver] Now you can go fast.

Now you can go.

- Here we go.

Oh.

It's hard to describe, unless you've lived a life where your son is often left out, how much that meant to me and so many other families.

That day, I was asked if I would continue, and I said absolutely not.

(laughs) - [Brooke] But of course, she did.

Despite the years of hard work it took to get Zachary's Playground, the overwhelmingly positive response from families who needed the same sort of space motivated her to grow the organization.

After all, when it comes to child's health and development, play is serious business.

There are numerous reports showing that playing with both parents and peers is essential for a child to thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.

But for children with disabilities, much of their time is spent in and out of appointments and therapies, making their limited time for play that much more valuable.

- After making phone calls and going through red tape, it's nice to just come here and just be here and play and relax and be together.

And it eliminates a lot of those boundaries that we come across, whether it is trying to get services or equipment.

Like here, we're just, we're able to relax and have that freedom to be together.

- I had a bad back surgery, and I also got hurt at work.

It allows me just to let him do his thing.

And these different pieces of equipment here are not just helpful for him, but they're also helpful for me.

- [Brooke] As necessary as these playgrounds are for kids with special needs and their caregivers, it's also important for kids without disabilities to understand the value of inclusion.

- I think it's very important for children to be exposed to children like Robert and get to know them and understand them- - And vice versa.

- A little bit, and him to also get that social feedback from typical peers.

So it's like a harmonious place where it all just kinda happens together very naturally.

- Playing with other kids, whether they be kids like him or atypical kids, just letting him be a kid is the most important thing to me.

- My son lost his life almost three years ago.

And I heard from people I'd never met about the power of the playgrounds for their family.

But one man stood out the most and he said that his wife and son went to Zachary's Playground, and he said that his wife came home in tears, saying how much it meant.

And he said, "Natalie, do you know what I did?

It meant so much to my family, I sold my house and we moved right next door to your family."

And for me, ugh, my son's legacy continues.

- Woosh.

- For a lot of us, this is the time of year to kick back on the weekend and fire up the grill.

But for others, it's serious business.

Jim Kirchherr has a story about a locally made barbecue sauce, and you've gotta get up pretty early in the morning for this one.

(machine whirs) - Today, I got here about four o'clock.

Normally, I'm here at three o'clock.

I love coming down here early like that because I don't have no distractions, and I can focus.

So once the sauce is all ready, and I got my seasonings all ready, and then I just start mixing everything.

And when the guys come in to work, the sauce is ready to go.

- [Jim] The man who first cooked up his barbecue sauce for family and friends in 1986 in a pot on the kitchen stove is now making it in 60 and 80-gallon kettles.

He's still the chief cook, but he is now in a position to hire some bottle washers.

- We're just doing all pints.

We're gonna do 50 cases.

(upbeat jazzy music) Uh, okay.

- [Jim] The product is Freddie Lee's Ghetto Sauce, the same product that's sold at Schnucks as American Gourmet Sauce.

And that's okay with Freddie Lee because Schnucks was really his first big customer.

They wanted a name change, and they got them.

- Immediately, they gave us five stores.

And when I started doing demos at those stores, they gave us five more.

And then, and told me they gonna put us in all of 'em.

So we're in 99 Schnucks stores.

- [Jim] Other stores like Dierbergs are selling it under the original Ghetto Sauce name.

One of his biggest customers is the Iowa-based Hy-Vee chain.

And when those stores need more sauce, Freddie himself still gets in the truck and hits the road.

- I go to Des Moines, Iowa.

I drop it off at their warehouse.

Or I go to Kansas City, or I go to Columbia, or Jeff City.

Wherever the Hy-Vee store is, that's where I go.

- [Jim] This was not our first time doing the Freddie Lee story.

In 2017, we did a program about Missouri entrepreneurs, and Freddie Lee and Deborah talked about how they moved the business from their home to the St. Patrick Center's business incubator, which rented out its kitchen to entrepreneurs and gave advice and mentorship.

- On the other side- - [Jim] And when money was running short, they got startup loans that kept the business and the dream alive.

After this, they contracted with a commercial food operation to make the sauce in bigger and bigger batches, but Freddie wasn't always happy with the quality control, the taste.

- You can't really find people who's gonna take care of your product.

And that's what, we've tried it and it didn't work, so I figured if it's gotta go, I gotta do it.

Now, I taste everything before I put it in a jar.

Oh, it's right on.

It's right on point.

Now it's ready for the jars.

- [Jim] If there's a secret to the success of this business besides the sauce recipe, it's the partnership.

This is a food business.

Freddie is the food.

Deborah is the business.

- She's been trying to teach me, man.

But I tell her, "Baby, you handle that.

Let me handle this."

- So now, we have graduated and purchased our own building.

- [Jim] You have to probably borrow some money to do this, right?

- Yes, we did.

We sat down, talked about it, what it was gonna look like, how it was gonna feel, how much hair we was gonna lose, (laughs) but it was the right move.

It was time because we were steady growing.

- Part of the growth is making small batches of other people's sauces.

They charge for that.

But if you want advice, that's free.

So you'll even help somebody who's making barbecue sauce.

- Yeah.

- Get on the shelf next to you.

- Absolutely, I have, yeah.

I'm not in competition with nobody, - Freddie and I always say that someone helped us to get to where we are, and we wanna do the same thing.

It's part of like paying it forward.

- [Jim] And part of that is staying in the city of St. Louis, buying the small strip mall that once house a convenience store.

- But no, I'm rooted, and I want to stay in the city of St. Louis.

That's what helped us build.

So why run when you start getting somewhere?

- [Jim] So you've been in this business for how long now?

- 18 years.

- It's doing well.

- Yes, sir, it is.

- So why are you still coming in at four a.m. (Freddie laughs) to spend a day cooking sauce, spending another day going to Des Moines or to Kansas City and deliver these things?

Why don't you kick back and let somebody else do this?

- Well, you have to talk to the wife about that.

- Freddie and I kick it around sometimes.

Do we ever wanna sell our company?

No.

No.

No.

We like what we do.

- [Jim] And they've done well against the odds, really, and they're willing to help others follow in their footsteps, sometimes with some very simple advice.

- [Freddie] I try to tell 'em that if you don't wanna put the effort in, you don't love it, don't do it.

That's money right there, baby.

(upbeat jazzy music) (typewriter keys tap) ("The Twilight Zone Main Theme") - [Jim] This week in history, a St. Louis native provided one of "The Twilight Zone's" classic endings.

On May 26th, 1961, the episode "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up" was broadcast, and that's Barney Phillips behind the diner counter with something hiding behind that cap.

And despite working steadily for many years, this is probably his most memorable role.

(bright music) He was born Bernard Ofner in St. Louis in 1913, the son of Harvey and Lonnie Ofner.

The family was living on the 5700 block in Page in 1920.

Later, when he started making a name for himself in Hollywood as Barney Phillips, there were stories about the hometown boy, his interest in being an actor while at Soldan High School, the acting prize he won as a student at Washington University.

His big break came in 1952 when he was cast in the role of a detective in the popular series "Dragnet".

And from then on, he would continue to work steadily, from "I Love Lucy" all the way to "The Dukes of Hazzard".

Never a star, people probably didn't know his name, but they sure knew that face, a face on "The Twilight Zone" that would be hard to forget.

- And if you're still alive- - [Jim] When St. Louisan Barney Phillips removed his cap.

- I think you'll see how we differ.

- [Jim] This week 63 years ago (Haley laughs) in St. Louis history.

(ominous music) (upbeat jazzy music) - And that's "Living St. Louis".

We like hearing from you.

Get in touch with us at NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Ruth Ezell.

Thanks for joining us.

(upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) (upbeat jazzy music continues) - [Veronica] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.