As Mark Cooper and wife Karen uniformly twisted each pretzel in preparation for the oven, it was nearly impossible to guess that they had already been awake for six hours. After all, it wasn’t even 9 a.m. yet.
Since the October 2007 opening of the Philly Pretzel Factory in Ewing, the couple and co-owners, of Cherry Hill, have arrived at the store by 4 a.m. every morning to personally make the dough for each day’s fresh batches of Philadelphia-style soft pretzels.
“One of the reasons my wife and I are here every day is to ensure the product quality,” Cooper said. “You’ve got to make sure people don’t get that one bad pretzel that makes them not want to come back.”
After an initial few years of trial and error, Cooper said they have fallen into a solid business and pretzel-making rhythm.
“It’s easy to make a pretzel, but it’s not easy to make a consistently good pretzel,” Cooper said.
According to the franchise’s website, Philly Pretzel Factory has more than 100 locations in seven different states. Cooper’s store is one of 41 in New Jersey.
Like the national franchise, the Parkway Avenue store offers a variety of pretzel products, including regular salted pretzels, cinnamon pretzels, pretzel dogs and cheesesteak pretzels.
But for outside-the-box thinkers, Cooper said custom pretzel orders are welcomed.
“We’ve made cars, trucks, cartoon characters, almost anything you can imagine,” Cooper said.
Cooper said the store receives requests to bake words, animals and more out of pretzels at least once a week.
“We’ve all developed our own specialties,” Cooper said. “Karen’s very good with letters and scripting and does really nice cartoon characters. I do animals, fish, stuff like that.”
Though advanced notice is appreciated, Cooper said customers have never been turned away. Even the man that ordered an entire tray of pretzel frogs was able to eventually walk away with a full order of them.
Despite the large-scale nature of the franchise, Cooper said that serving the community is a major focus of his Philly Pretzel Factory store.
From nursery schools to colleges to local businesses, Customers tell Cooper of the pleasure pretzels bring. Cooper has even provided tours of the store to local schools and organizations so children can learn to twist and bake their own pretzels.
“People really seem to be fascinated by watching the process of making pretzels,” Cooper said.
He said customers often peek behind the counter at the front of the store to see the large machine and oven beyond that produce the pretzels fresh throughout the day.
In addition to the pretzels’ freshness, the absence of fat, cholesterol and sugar make them a healthy treat and crowd pleaser, Cooper said.
Whether he sees customers daily, weekly or monthly, “it’s definitely habit-forming,” he said.
The Philly Pretzel Factory is located at 1400 Parkway Ave. in Ewing. It is open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (609) 771-8550. On the Web: phillysoftpretzelfactory.com.
Philly Pretzel Factory owner Mark Cooper operates the chain’s Ewing storefront. (Staff photo by Rachel Wintermute.)
Philly Pretzel Factory owner Mark Cooper shapes dough for one of his salted treats. (Staff photo by Rachel Wintermute.)
