Today is once again the one day of the year devoted to twisted doughy treats, National Pretzel Day.
In honor of the holiday, anyone looking to add a twist to their Friday can do so with a free pretzel from the Philly Pretzel Factory.
With more than 120 stores across the nation participating in the event, even the Saint Clair store at 400 Terry Rich Blvd. in Coal Creek Center will be celebrating the unofficial holiday.
Founded in 1983, National Pretzel Day was created when Rep. Robert S. Walker declared his favorite food was deserving of a holiday.
In April 2003, Gov. Ed Rendell declared the unofficial national holiday.
Terrence Ryan, Wayne, owner of the Philly Pretzel Factory franchise said Wednesday that no purchase is necessary and everyone is welcome to come in to get a free pretzel from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today.
"The idea is that it is our way of giving back to the community and saying thanks for allowing us to operate here," Ryan said. "It's also a great way to garner the newer customers into the store that might not have thought about coming in."
Ryan said that in addition to everyone being entitled to one free pretzel, the first 100 people that come through the door today will receive a coupon that will allow them to have one free pretzel every day in May.
"It's sort of to encourage more people to come in and try Philly Pretzel for what it is, with the hopes that they'll come back," Ryan said.
He also said they have been celebrating the holiday at his store since 2009, but the holiday has "certainly grown" over the last couple years.
Besides the standard pretzels, other items Philly Pretzel Factory offers include pretzel hotdogs, cheese steaks, cinnamon pretzels and party trays, and they do fundraisers.
Philly Pretzel Factory isn't the only pretzel shop celebrating the holiday today, as the county's newest pretzel stand, Totally Twisted Soft Pretzel Bakery in the Schuylkill Mall, which opened Feb. 22, is also offering a special.
Mike Haspe, one of the owners, said that they will be offering pretzels for $1 from 6 to 9 p.m.
According to the Totally Twisted Facebook page, the business is family owned and operated and they strive to provide guests with fresh homemade products with quality that is "never sacrificed to save money" since their pretzels are never kept longer than 30 minutes.
Haspe said while the recipe was created in 2010 in the founder's kitchen, they started in Jim Thorpe in 2011 and also have a location in the Columbia Mall in Bloomsburg.
The Schuylkill Mall stand will be holding its grand opening sometime this summer that will include a free pretzel day and a live performer.
He started the business with Chuck Bloss and Mike Vanwert.
Totally Twisted offers a wide variety of pretzel flavors including staples like old fashioned salt and butter, cinnamon, garlic, parmesan and garlic, sour cream, jalapeno and sesame.
Besides pretzels, they also sell iced tea and lemonade that's made fresh daily and 18 flavors of Slush Puppy products.
"What we do is hand twist our pretzels," Haspe said. "People need to give us a shot. Just because it's different doesn't mean that it isn't good. Usually most of the people that try it come back again."