We were lucky to catch up with Erika Tonelli Bonnett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Erika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I was in law school so how the hell did I get here? Center City Pretzel was started by my father, Tony Tonelli, back in 1981. The bakery was always a sibling to me, one that pulled my dad away most days and at all hours. I always wanted to be in law from the time I was a kid. I knew that was my trajectory. A later trajectory perhaps as I didn’t apply to law school until I was in my 40s. I had a daughter I adopted when she was 9 months old and worked at the bakery after leaving the field of law as my hours at the firm were crazy late. I knew my daughter was never going to know me if someone else was taking care of her every need and bedtime. I was taking my finals in my very first year of law school post Covid. I had been studying like mad. My father came back from Florida for some health tests and we were all nervously awaiting results as a family. I remember distinctly him walking past my home office where I was busily taking my one final and yet trying to not hear what was happening on the other side of that door. But, there was no way I missed my father saying, “I have ALS.” I was done. Hit submit on my final and walked out of that room knowing my fate was probably sealed for law school. I walked away from school and realized God has a much larger plan for me. I took over the bakery’s daily operations and I have never looked back. It was a risk for sure. Everything we do is a risk. I was someone who worked in the office and now I was managing a staff, handling HR, projecting new products, ordering, etc. My father passed away September 2021. I could not let him leave this earth thinking for one second that his legacy- what kept him away from his family for so many year and hours- died with him. Every day I get out of bed wondering if I’m doing it right or what would he do, but I realize I am my father’s daughter and he would never see me fail. He still shares this office with me. He still walks this building. Risky to take on a 40+ year old legacy business that produces the city’s best pretzel? Hell yes. Worth it? HELL YES!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I love this part! My father started Center City Pretzel Co. in South Philly’s Italian Market back in 1981. We are a proud Italian family and I am a very proud daughter. We make Philly’s best soft pretzel -voted Best of Philly 2024!- for the last 43 years. It’s all we do here. I always say if you can think it, we can pretzel it. And, we have. We carry our traditional Philly-style figure 8 pretzel, a shape this is all Philly, all day and it’s what our city is known for. We released The Zagel(TM), a first of its kind pretzel bagel that has been a huge hit and makes an amazing sandwich. Plus, we do the fun stuff like sticks and minis and Pop-Its (a nugget type shape), and, ahem, “bachelorette” pretzels. Our industry is mainly made up of franchises or are corporately owned and all by men. We are still one family, one location, one damn good pretzel, We have not gone the franchise route after being asked multiple times to consider it. You can’t keep your eye on multiple places at one time and still produce the same quality product with the same pride when it’s out of your hands. That’s my opinion. We pride ourselves on using 3 simple ingredients and the fact that we are both vegan and certified kosher, we can serve a greater population and many allergen sensitive populations- with the exception of gluten, of course! We serve everyone to put it simply. We are both retail and wholesale so anywhere from your everyday person to schools, businesses, hospitals. Another key pride is our customer service. You won’t find better! We care about what we do here. Sounds corny, so be it, but we really do care about the people on the other side of that counter from the ingredients we choose to how we make them and serve them to you. Without you, there is no us. Brides are some of our favorites to work with. We make your big day as easy as possible. Your end of night party favor or guest check-in welcome bag should be one less thing you worry about in the entire grand scheme of planning. We also love being a part of people’s big life moments from births to bar/bat mitzvahs to communions and engagements. Or, when people tell us a fond story of coming in with a now gone relative or grandparent and how they now bring their own kids to be indoctrinated in the proper Philly pretzel way!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Oh, hell yes! We were one of the lucky ones that survived Covid as a small business. We saw so many family-owned small Philly businesses, and some not so small, close up following that disaster. Covid was a worldwide pandemic and our close-knit group here in the city, (yes, we are close knit in big bad Philly!) were rocked on a different level since this city is built on the shoulders of small businesses like our own. I told my father I was going to start a GoFundMe as we still had bills and vendors to pay during the citywide shutdown of nonessential businesses. Who knew pretzels were nonessential in this city? My father was against it, said it was charity and he is a proud man. I’m so glad I ignored him that day because people came out and I mean came out. Someone contacted our local news to tell them about us. Thanks to the ALL the people who had their memories or are just from Philly and just love what we do, they supported us and helped us to pay the majority our outstanding bills and stay on good terms with our vendors. We rebuilt after Covid and all of our customers came back, thank God. I’ve said it before and will reiterate it now, without them, there is no us.

So, we get thru Covid and soft reopen late May 2020, one day a week to 2 days to 3 days to 5. My father passes away September 2021 from ALS and cancer. My dog passes away August 2022. We have a fire here September 2022. That small fire closed us for 18 months. There has to be a movie in this, right?!

The rumors started we would never reopen, mostly from the fugazi companies and people who hoped we wouldn’t. But, we did. 18 months if you can imagine of FIGHTING. Fighting with insurance companies, inspectors, attorneys, adjusters, contractors, supply houses. You name it, I took them on. We had a general contractor walk on the job a total of 4 times in 18 months. An attorney who took off with an insurance check because he decided to start billing us hourly instead of what our executed engagement letter stated. Contractors who left our vital piece of equipment incomplete and demanded full payment. Electricians who were using our ordered parts for bigger, more expensive jobs. An adjuster who sat here after the fire and told us everything was going to be ok and heard me tell my employees the same and then ripped the rug out from under us. Wrong motors installed, burned out and had to be reordered on our dime because no one will ever admit they did it improperly and that just kept pushing us back. Personal finances devastated. I’ve never fought so hard for so long and so tirelessly and I absolutely know it’s because of the promise I made to my father. Things got really ugly between family members who thought let’s call it a day and my rebuttal of absolutely not. It was hard, I won’t lie. There were sleepless nights, anxiety and panic, loss of relationships. The people who stood by me are the relationships that lasted. And, so did Center City Pretzel.
I’m a woman, I’m 4 foot 11. And, I’m running a business in a male dominated industry.
That and adopting my daughter are my 2 biggest adult accomplishments to date.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

We have always had our loyal customer base, but we’ve seen some people try something new when we had our fire or they’ve retired or passed away, as that’s how long they’ve been with us. We have never advertised, alway been a word-of-mouth-business. The “place with the garage door”! But, in the wonderful and stressful world of social media, we have built our customer base using FB/IG. I cannot get down with TikTok but that’s because I hate making videos and I won’t pay someone to do it for me since it won’t be authentic to our voice. We put our daily posts out there and people find us. Our socials were hacked so we had to start over from the very beginning because God knows there is no one to contact in the Metaverse to help you gain back what you tirelessly started and cultivated online. But, that’s ok. Rebuilding is what we do here!

Since reopening from our fire, I have tried to cultivate a grassroots small business uprising if you will. I ask other small businesses to join us here at our place, free of charge, and bring what they do that plays well with what we do. We cross post about the date and what to expect. We introduce each other’s business to the other’s and maybe get some new customers in doing so. They come here and set up in front of our place and do what they do best. So far, we’ve had a beer company because what goes better with pretzels? We’ve hosted a minority woman owned bar cart who did amazing lemonade concoctions with fun names based off of our local water system- Schuylkill Punch anyone?- and streets and that was fun. We’ve hosted 2 sandwich makers, one who makes his own condiments company. And, our favorite local “wooder” ice truck.
I’m also constantly checking back on past customers and putting our name out there everywhere I can.
We keep it simple and real and authentic here and if that’s what people are looking for, they’ve come to the right place.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.centercitypretzel.com
• Instagram: @centercitypretzelcoinc
• Facebook: Center City Pretzel Co Inc
• Linkedin: Erika Tonelli Bonnett
• Yelp: Center City Pretzel Co.