It's home of some of the greatest snack foods on record, so it's only fitting that Philly Pretzel Factory Founder Dan DiZio came straight out of Philadelphia. You see, from the time he was 11 years old, Dan had pretzels on the brain. The pint-sized entrepreneur began selling the salty treats on a corner of Roosevelt Boulevard, often running out of stock by mid-afternoon. When he would bike back ho
me at the end of the day, Dan would dream of a store where Philly soft pretzels were served fresh and hot around the clock. After college, Dan decided to bake those pretzel dreams into a reality. Tired of sweaty hard pretzels from convenience stores and street corners, Dan was determined to serve only the best, most delicious soft pretzels - anywhere. So with a friend and co-founder Len Lehman, Dan tracked down the Cadillac of pretzel-making machines (buried deep in a Florida garage of all places). The two partners rented a truck and drove over 1000 miles each way to pick up the prized machine. May 1998, Dan and Len cut the ribbon on their first Philly Pretzel Factory in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia. The partners immediately released batch after batch of real soft pretzels. The demand for the Philly-style treat became so large that Dan & Len were given no choice but to offer their pretzels hot outta the oven. This new-found way of serving pretzels became an instant hit and has played a major part in the success of the first location. More than 175 stores later (and counting), Philly Pretzel Factory continues to bake the freshest, most delicious pretzels and serve them "hot outta the oven" just like they have since the beginning.
