Philly Pretzel Factory Twists Its Way To Miami

The modern age of pretzel making began in 1935 when the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company invented an automatic pretzel-twisting machine. It was hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and sliced bread hadn’t even been invented yet.

The modern age of Miami pretzel-eating began just this month at the new Philly Pretzel Factory in the Keystone Plaza, North Miami Beach. Never frozen, these soft, baked-fresh-to-order pretzels are fat free, sugar free, and cholesterol free. They are warm and tasty, too, perhaps akin to what a bagel with a holistic lifestyle might be like. Optional toppings (besides the crunchy nuggets of salt) include cinnamon, garlic, mustard, peanut butter, and hummus -- presumably not all together. Plus there are pretzel rolls, pretzel hot dogs, croissant-shaped pretzels filled with pepperoni and mozzarella. I think you get the idea.

Price for a single pretzel is $1.25, but bet you can’t eat just one. Three go for $2.50, ten for $5, fifty for $20, one hundred for $35. Evidently if you buy enough, they become free. Point is, though, that if you like soft pretzels, now you’ve got a place to go.

- Lee Klein