SAINT CLAIR - Philly Pretzel Factory made sure everyone had a fresh-baked soft pretzel in hand Thursday for National Pretzel Day.
Founded in 1983, National Pretzel Day was created when Rep. Robert S. Walker declared his favorite food was deserving of a holiday and it was then declared the unofficial national holiday by Gov. Ed Rendell in April 2003.
"Today is our day to celebrate and give back to all the regular customers that come in throughout the year, so if you're a regular customer, you know that today is National Pretzel Day," said Terrence Ryan, Wayne, owner of the Philly Pretzel Factory franchise located in Coal Creek Center. "It's also a way for us to promote the business and get new customers to come in. We hope that by trying it, at least that they'll come back later on."
Ryan is also the owner of the franchise located in the Tilden Ridge Shopping Center near Hamburg that opened last year.
This was the first year the Hamburg location participated in National Pretzel Day since it opened last year after the unofficial holiday.
With the Saint Clair location having been open since December 2008 and the unofficial holiday growing in popularity each year, Ryan expected to see about 300 customers Thursday.
On top of a free pretzel, the first 100 people through the doors also received a punch card that entitled them to a free pretzel a day during the month of May.
Ryan and the Coal Creek store's manager, Jen Scifo, who has been with the store since its opening, then showed exactly how they make the pretzels from starting with bags of flour to coming fresh out of the oven.
All of the pretzels, no matter what the size, start with the ingredients being mixed, including flour and yeast, and the mixture is put into a machine that later spits out the perfect measurement of dough.
The dough strips then need to be twisted by hand.
Once the pretzels are twisted, they go into a walk-in freezer where they're allowed to rise.
"The more yeast, the faster it will rise," Ryan said.
Pretzels are then rotated out of the freezer, dipped in water, put on the salting table where they're salted and then put in the oven for about 7 minutes at 525 degrees.
"Then they're hot out of the oven, just how everyone wants them," Scifo said.
In addition to people coming in for a free pretzel, Ryan said the idea for the celebration at the store was to also inform people who aren't regulars about the other items Philly Pretzel Factory offers.
Other items include pretzel hotdogs, cheese steaks, cinnamon pretzels and party trays.
Philly Pretzel Factory also does fundraisers.
"We try and reach out to a lot of the schools and let them know it's a great way to do fundraising," Ryan said.
"It's cheap, so where else can you get a giant box of 100 pretzels for $32 and turn around and hopefully sell it for $100?"
Ryan said that the amount people can buy for a fundrasier varies but the discounted wholesale price is 32 cents a pretzel, with teams and clubs able to sell them for about a $1 each.
According to Brooke Wylie on Tuesday, senior brand communicator for No Limit Media Consulting in Decatur, Ga., in conjunction with National Pretzel Day the CEO and co-founder of Philly Pretzel Factory, Dan DiZio, will be appearing on CBS's reality show Undercover Boss at 8 p.m. tonight.
During the episode, DiZio leaves his office at the store headquarters and goes to work in disguise within the locations.
He will be on a mission to improve the brand by working side-by-side with the pretzel makers and management.