March 29, 2024
@CenterCityPretzelCoinc/Instagram
Center City Pretzel Co. will reopen its garage storefront at 816 Washington Ave. on Monday. The business, founded in 1981, has been closed for the last 18 months due to damage from an electrical fire that required extensive repairs.
Anyone craving a salty bite from Center City Pretzel Co. could be forgiven for thinking the business is pulling an April Fools joke by reopening Monday, now 18 months removed from the fire that shut down its garage storefront on Washington Avenue.
The 43-year-old soft pretzel company's tried-and-true recipe hits the spot like few others in the game, but owner Erika Tonelli Bonnett's past attempts to reopen have all been postponed. Last June, she said she was optimistic that the required repairs would be completed in time to open in late July. That didn't come to pass, and then months went by with occasional updates on Instagram detailing the latest progress toward getting the shop up and running again.
Bonnett said Thursday that she's finally prepared to welcome customers back starting at.6 a.m. Monday — and she assured her followers that it's not a prank.
The Instagram post lays out how the business plans to operate and what people should expect. There will be no pre-orders. They'll bake pretzels all day, but once they're sold out, that's it. Any order of 40 or more pretzels will be priced at wholesale. Less than that will be retail. And there will likely be some snags, since Center City Pretzel Co. is adjusting to new equipment and the return of business. Regular hours haven't yet been shared.
Bonnett spent 17 years working under her father Tony, taking over the business after he retired. He died in 2021. The electrical fire in September 2022 destroyed the shop's dough extruder, which forms the thousands of figure-eight-style pretzels baked there daily, and damaged an electrical panel. Bonnett had no choice but to close, thinking it would all get sorted out in a few months, but she soon found herself in an insurance nightmare that twisted her brain into a pretzel.
"The frustration level, I don't know how I'm not either in a mental hospital or in jail. Or an alcoholic," she said last summer.
The lag in getting money for necessary repairs led to other problems — a burst pipe, rusted equipment, a building in need of power washing. She reluctantly turned to GoFundMe for additional help, which the business also had to do to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bonnett said she sometimes got rude comments and skepticism as the months went on without pretzels to show for it.
In text messages Friday, Bonnett said she's nervous about reopening and added, "It's in God's hands."
Bonnett's commitment to carrying on her father's legacy has been the driving force in her struggle to bring the business back. Center City Pretzel Co. has a national profile — it was featured in Vice's "Munchies" video series last year — and has been a preferred choice for offices and Eagles fans on Sundays for decades.
Maybe the spirits of the monks who invented pretzels — originally symbols of prayer and the Holy Trinity — will be looking over Center City Pretzel Co. on Monday and beyond.
