[ Horn honks ] -Our bus drivers come by. They honk the horn
down at 9th Street. We get their pretzels ready,
we do a quick swap. -Have a good one. -Alright.
-Have a good day! And then they get
right back on the bus and they get the hell
out of here. This is a regular
occurrence, yes. ♪♪ My name is
Erika Tonelli Bonnett. I am the Chief Operating Officer
of Center City Pretzel Company. We've been here for 42 years. My father started this,
I believe I was six years old? So back, I guess,
in, what, '81-ish? He had this idea. And he wanted to do something
that was better than what was being done. He put a different face
on the soft pretzel. He put a different face
on this industry. The recipe has never changed.
We are still flour-yeast-water. I think when you start
to get into trying to elevate and elevate,
you lose its natural-ness. So for us,
we've never changed anything. That's been the recipe
for 42 years. When he got ill,
I could not allow him to go thinking that
this went with him. So I needed him to leave here
knowing that we'd be okay, this would continue,
and I had his back. A hundred? -120.
-120? 120. -[ Speaking indistinctly ] -How you doing?
-Good, good. Lots of money
going out the door. -Thanks, Ed.
-Thanks, Ed. -Absolutely.
Second quarter, Tony Clark. -I think, for the most part,
people think, "You're open
from 6:00 to 11:00." Like you work this short,
little day, and you go home. No, you don't.
So, we get started here at 3:30. -This, I'm lighting
under the caustic tank. That'll heat up the liquid
that the pretzels will dip into. As well as the barrel.
If this barrel's not hot, the pretzels will stick
to the belt. This barrel's got to heat up. It's got to be
140 to 160 degrees. -Anthony is my right hand, my left ear,
my right eye, whatever. -I've been here about 10 years. I started doing deliveries. I used to work for Proctor
and Gamble as a sales associate. I had from North Jersey
to Cape May, was my territory. I would come here
and buy pretzels to butter up the store managers. And that's how I became
friendly with John, and then he would say,
"I need a driver," and I helped him out with that. And the brewery got 40 Friday,
I didn't write it anywhere. -40 Friday, 40 Thursday? I come in and I bake.
I'm very hands on. I am not somebody
who just sits in the office and I catch up
at the end of the day. It doesn't stop.
When you are running a business, especially, I think,
when it's a legacy business, you don't get the option
to put it on a shelf and "I'm done for the day." If I see something
that comes out of that oven and it doesn't look right to me, it doesn't go out the door
to anybody else. It stops by the time
it gets to the end of the oven and it goes right
in the garbage. Good morning! He's here! Hello, how was your weekend? -Good, good. You know. [ Dog whines ] -Right. You done?
I know, I know! -This is Buddy. I've had Buddy --
He just had his fifth birthday and I've been bringing him here
since he was born, since he was a baby.
But he knows the entire family and him and Erika
are like best friends, so even though he's not
supposed to have pretzels, he gets a little piece
of the pretzel every day. -Our everyday customer,
there's no one answer. It's everybody.
It's absolutely everybody. We open the doors,
and it's normally our vendors. They've all got to get
to their carts, or they have to get to their restaurants
or shops or whatever. So by 5:45,
they're lined up outside. So we handle them first. After that, it's usually
a lot of your city workers, your streets department,
your PGW. They jump in, they grab stuff. -Thank you.
Have a good day. -There are people who
they will buy six and they will eat two
for breakfast, two for lunch, two for dinner. It's a simple food,
so it feeds people quickly. -These are like --
They make for... When they started
making pretzels. We got factories and all now
that pump them out? This is the place.
These are delicious. -20 pretzels and a mustard
for 17 bucks. Come on down!
It's good stuff. -The oven, we call the Beast. [ Classical piano music
playing ] Over a hundred years old,
shipped in from Italy panel by panel, a bucket of bolts,
put it together. So that's what they did.
It's 50 feet long. 500 degrees
is the average temperature. It's its own character. People come by, they want to see
pretzels coming out of it. We've done stories about it. Kids are enthralled
by watching this thing, because it's not
something small. If it ever, God forbid,
went down, we'd be screwed. Like, that's how we make them.
There is no other way. We maintain it on a daily basis. But there's every so often that
she wants to test my patience. And when she does,
it's an all hands on deck. This is all dependent of that.
So weather. In the dead of the summer, it could take --
from front to back, it'll take eight minutes or so. If it's a little bit colder, then we have to adjust burners
and belt speeds, it could take 10 to 11 minutes.
So it just depends. A Philadelphia pretzel
has its own shape. I think some people are just
used to ballpark pretzels with the three rings
and the frozen nonsense. But a Philadelphia pretzel
is a figure eight. It's two loops
with a big, old center knot. Apparently it means love
because of the continuous shape, and we are
the City of Brotherly Love. It's not just cheesesteaks
down here. It was never my calling. I was in the process
of adopting my daughter. And I was in law. And I was coming home
11:00 at night, 1:00 in the morning, and said,
"If I keep up this pace, that child will never know
who the hell her mother is." And my father said,
"You know what?" He was like, "I'm getting tired,
and I really -- I'm considering not retiring,
but kind of stepping away, and I need somebody
that's going to be in here," he said, "that's going to look
out for me and have my back." And he said,
"Would you be willing to come on in the office?" And now here I am.
He passed away a year ago. And it's me now, with my mother's help,
my sister in the background. But I'm hands on,
and I don't know that he knew
that I paid attention, because I didn't say
much about it, but I took in
every frigging word he said. -Hey, babe.
-Morning. Morning, child. My husband, as needed,
he'll come down. He helps out. He also helps me out mentally
to keep all my shit together. Because it does get
stressful at times, when you're the one
that is the most hands on and you're trying to make sure every "I" and every "T"
are addressed. From maintenance to ordering,
all of it, there's a lot that goes into
this simple product that everybody enjoys.
There's a lot that goes into it. So, that's my husband's role. My daughter helps out
with putting labels on boxes and getting boxes ready
for mail order. My mom, she pays the bills, and that is the most helpful
part of running this place. My sister helps out as needed. She'll come and she'll cut dough
with these guys and she'll be back here. And she'll be my eyes and ears
as I was for my father. I have an uncle. My uncle will
come down, he'll fix something. So, yes, I mean, from immediate
family to the extended family. Everybody has their hand
in this place. So I jokingly say I either need
to get more chairs or I need to get a booth
made for up front that we can just put outside. Anthony -- Now his dad comes in, so he hangs out
and he brings breakfast. -I've been coming here --
They've been here 42 years, that's how long
I've been coming. I'm 75 years old. I've been
coming here for 42 years. And I lost my wife
a year ago, so now in the mornings,
I'm out of my routine. I used to make breakfast
with my wife. So now I come here
in the morning, since my son starts at 2:30,
and I bring breakfast for him. I can't just bring it
for just him, so I bring breakfast
for three other people. Frank was Erika's father,
and Erika, and, like I said, I've been coming here
for 42 years, since they've been here. We're like one big happy family. -We've been here for so long that they're almost mascots
at this point that come and hang out. And I wouldn't have it
any other way, especially being a female
running a business on my own
in the city of Philadelphia. I kind of feel
a little bit more protected having these people out there
looking out for me. But that's who we are. We draw people in,
and I'm glad to say that they want to hang out
and they don't want to leave. ♪♪ It's people's breakfast.
It's what feeds their family, for many people. We have women who go into labor, and this is their first stop before they deliver
their children. There's a lot of history here. I think this means a lot
to the city, not just to myself. It's a simple, inexpensive food,
where you're going to go and get something that's going
to fill you from lunch to dinner or from breakfast
to maybe dinner for 70 cents. I mean, that's what
our price is right now over the counter
for one single pretzel. Which everybody keeps saying,
"Why is it so cheap?" You're right.
Could I probably get more? Yes. Are people going to be
willing to pay for it? Yes. But again, we're trying to keep
it within reach for everyone. For everyone. -It's part of the neighborhood.
It is what it is. Pretzels, you know, from Philly. -I mean, as long
as I can continue to do it, those doors will be open,
this place will go, pretzels will go out every day. That is my plan.
And I'd like to elevate this and take it to whatever
the next level should be for it. Philadelphians have always
gotten a bum rap. It's a bunch of people
from a bunch of different places who are proud of who they are, where they're from,
their culture, their ethnicity. -Erika is the best! The pretzel factory,
Erika is the best. The best neighbor,
the best everything. It's the best, okay? Peace out!
Are they still closed from their electrical fire?
I love that place.
This place is good but Furfaris in Fishtown was the best pretzel place in the city until it closed down
Very bummed they are still not opened back up! Hope they open soon and can rebound. I'd really hate to see them go the way of Ippolito's (which, btw, are they still insisting they are reopening?).
Impressive.