Soft pretzels are an American staple — no baseball game, circus or street fair would be complete without them. They are a true comfort food, with every delicious bite of the warm dough and coarse salt bringing back memories of good times with family and friends. But the last decade or so has seen a change in the way Americans are consuming soft pretzels. The doughy delights are no longer simply a basic bread-and-salt product purchased at a vendor. Instead, they've risen to the level of a gourmet snack, showing up in shopping malls and restaurants across the country at a booming rate.

Although they're a modern-day nosh, pretzels were created in 610 A.D., when Italian monks took leftover bread-dough scraps, rolled them into long pieces, folded them to resemble hands in prayer and baked them to a golden brown. They gave the pretiolas, or "little rewards," to their most devoted students. The treats became popular all over the continent, and when the Europeans began settling in America in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought their recipes for fresh-baked, hand-mixed pretzels. Today the mid-Atlantic states are still considered the nation's Pretzel Belt, where the average pretzel consumption is 4 pounds a year — about twice the national average, according to Sturgis Pretzels, a pretzel manufacturer in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Nearly 1,400 years after the first pretzels were baked, they are still a favored snack food. A 1997 USA Today poll ranked pretzels as the third most popular snack food by share of total sales, behind potato chips and tortilla chips.

Consumers' changing tastes and lifestyles have added to the popularity of soft pretzels, says Gail Henderson, director of business development and sales at Kim and Scott's Gourmet Pretzels, a Chicago-based manufacturer. "Pretzels are an easy grab-and-go food, and there's the low-fat appeal," she says. "They're just a fun product — they're fun to eat, and they're fun to look at."

And restaurants are beginning to get in on the fun with profitable results. "No one's ever had a bad time when they're eating a soft pretzel," says Michael Karaban, marketing vice president for J&J Snack Foods Corp. in Pennsauken, New Jersey. "They're soft and warm, portion-controlled and low fat. They're a comfort food."

Pretzels' popularity is rising

In today's soft-pretzel market, the plain pretzel still reigns supreme, but soft pretzels in unique flavors are gaining favor.

Auntie Anne's Hand-Rolled Soft Pretzels, headquartered in Gap, Pennsylvania, brought the flavored soft-pretzel movement into the mainstream when it opened its first stores in 1988. Flavors such as "Glazin' Raisin," "Sour Cream and Onion" and "Cinnamon Sugar" became instant hits in malls across the country. The "Original" flavor, however, still remains the company's bestseller. Today, Auntie Anne's has more than 660 stores in 43 states and seven countries, including Japan, Thailand and Indonesia.

Auntie Anne's ships its pretzel mix fresh to each store, where employees prepare the dough and hand-twist pretzels in front of customers. "Customers can literally see the dough going from the mixing to the baking stage," says Lynn Williams, Auntie Anne's public-relations coordinator. "When people walk by [Auntie Anne's] in the mall, there's that smell, and you actually see what's going on — it makes you want to buy a pretzel."

Consumers aren't just opting for the treats at shopping malls. J&J Snack Foods Corp., manufacturer of the top-selling SUPERPRETZEL brand, has been offering both traditional and flavored soft pretzels in movie theaters for the last 10 years.

"There was a lot of resistance at first, because movies already sold popcorn," says Karaban. "But then they realized that soft pretzels represent a considerable amount of incremental sales to movie theaters."

In the beginning, J&J marketed mini soft-pretzel nuggets, called "Pretzel Bites," to theaters to be sold in plastic nacho trays with a cheese dip. Once "Pretzel Bites" became a staple in movie theaters, the demand for full-size soft pretzels increased. J&J now sells its "Pretzel Gourmet" line, featuring full-size soft pretzels in flavors such as "Cinnamon Raisin" and "Roasted Garlic," to movie theaters. The most popular gourmet soft pretzel is the "Sweet Dough" topped with cinnamon and sugar, says Karaban.

Kim and Scott's Gourmet Pretzels have developed unique pretzel flavors that appeal to consumers' hunger for something new. Flavors like "Mozzarella Pizza," with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese baked into the dough, and "Apple Cinnamon," made with unsweetened applesauce, dried apples and cinnamon, have been a real hit with consumers. The large 5.3-ounce pretzels have gained a faithful following everywhere from the Las Vegas Convention Center to college and university campuses and were a hit at the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show this past May.

Kim and Scott's pretzels are sold prebaked and frozen to distributors across the country. "Everything's in and on the dough," says Henderson. "They're a low-labor, no-brainer for the end user."

Doughy dips

By themselves, soft pretzels are a good, quick, healthful snack. A 21/4-ounce plain pretzel, for example, has about 180 calories and 1 gram of fat, says Sheila Cohn, R.D., nutrition coordinator at the National Restaurant Association. By adding some cream cheese, marinara sauce or sweet-mustard dipping sauce into the equation, an ordinary snack becomes a gourmet appetizer that can liven up a restaurant's starter menu.

Retailers are creating specific dipping sauces to complement the flavors of their pretzels. Kim and Scott's, for example, recommends marinara dipping sauce with its "Mozzarella Pizza" pretzel. Auntie Anne's dipping sauces include strawberry cream cheese, chocolate and hot-salsa cheese. "Dips increase the plate presentation by adding color and texture to the pretzel," says Henderson.

Pretzels and dipping sauces are popular with customers at Capitol City Brewing Company, a restaurant operation with four units in the Washington DC and Baltimore area. The operation serves up hot soft pretzels and a homemade Dijon mustard-and-horseradish dipping sauce to customers in lieu of a traditional breadbasket. During a typical lunch or dinner rush, the restaurant will go through 50 to 100 pretzels every 15 minutes, says John Ross, Capitol City's director of operations.

"People love them," says Ross. "It's what people remember about us . . . . If there was just a bottle of yellow mustard on the table, there wouldn't be a response. We get tons of compliments on the combination of the sauce and the pretzels. No one ever says, 'I loved those pretzels but didn't care for the sauce.'"

Capitol City orders its pretzels premade and frozen from J&J Snack Foods Corp., but some operations prefer to bake their pretzels from scratch on premises. The West Hill House Bed and Breakfast in Warren, Vermont, serves up homemade soft pretzels from the kitchen of co-owner Dotty Kyle. "We were looking for something new to do for skiers when they come in from the cold," says Kyle. "[The pretzels are] gone right away. People usually eat about two each, and some eat more."

The pretzels are made with wheat germ and chopped dried onion and are served fresh out of the oven as an afternoon snack with Dijon mustard and honey or maple-syrup dipping sauce. The warm, doughy treat is a hit with wintertime guests. "There's just something special about fresh-baked breads," says Kyle.

Other ways to make dough

When people think of pretzels, the familiar knot in the middle is probably the first image that comes to mind. Now pretzel manufacturers are creating other bakery items with the same distinctive pretzel dough to expand their market.

Euro-Bake, Inc., headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, imports various pretzel products from southern Germany, then sells them to upscale restaurants and hotels across the country. In addition to the traditional Bavarian pretzel, the company sells "Pretzel Sandwich Breads" and "Pretzel Sticks." The latest product is a "Pretzel Croissant," which is a dough product that rises while baking. All other pretzel products from Euro-Bake come fully baked. "By offering the traditional flavor and texture of the pretzel in different shapes and forms, we give the operator the possibility of creating totally new menu items," says Ralph Hoffman, Euro-Bake's national sales manager.

The key, Hoffman says, is that pretzel dough is a very versatile product with universal appeal. "People love the flavor of a real pretzel, and operators are looking for new and different products for their breadbaskets, sandwiches or snack items," he says. "Pretzel dough is such a standard thing . . . but in different forms, it becomes a much more special thing to present to customers."

Pretzel power

With their convenience and portion size, it's likely soft pretzels' popularity will continue to rise. With new and unique flavors, specialty dipping sauces and new dough creations, restaurateurs can easily customize their pretzel offerings to tempt customers' taste buds. "Pretzels have been around for a long time," says Henderson. "We're just adding a new twist to the old appeal."

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