With a little help from their friends, of course.
Four guys, a girl and a pretzel place. Like many good ideas, this one started with a few beers at a local bar. Drinking together and munching on bowl after bowl of flavorless cardboard nuggets, the partners behind The Pretzel Company decided we did not like most pretzels. And we thought we could do better.
On December 5, 2014, York City Pretzel Company opened their doors in downtown York. The 1,200 square foot location served as a working pretzel bakery in the back and retail soft pretzel café in the front.
York City Pretzel Company launched with two brothers, three friends, one professional baker, and our literal moms helping out. We had a third-hand oven with only one working motor. And yet, within three months, Zagat Philadelphia had declared our pretzels “worth the drive” from Philadelphia and we went from a little pretzel shop on Market Street to a little commercial bakery. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 60% of our revenue came from wholesale pretzel products to regional restaurants.
Today we’re better known as The Pretzel Company, the digital face of York City Pretzel Company, after we pivoted to online sales during COVID.
Since launching The Pretzel Company in May 2020, our e-commerce business has shipped hundreds of thousands of pretzels to every corner of all 50 United States. From Florida to Oregon and all points in between, our brand has garnered thousands of five-star reviews.
We’re still two brothers, but now that “girl” became a wife, our team is now two dozen-plus strong, and our kids (and newly-retired dad!) help out from time to time. Oh, and we finally updated our ovens and have tripled our baking capacity.