Milwaukee Pretzel went from an idea to a successful business in just a few short years. The story starts when owners Matt and Katie Wessel spent time in Germany for Katie’s job in 2012.
“We were traveling a lot of places in Bavaria, and we were eating these pretzels day in and day out. And it just hit us that America—and Milwaukee in particular, a very Germanic city—needed these pretzels as a part of its identity,” Matt Wessel says.
Once they returned to the U.S., Katie, a self-described foodie, started playing around with recipes, mixing styles of pretzels they enjoyed during their travels.
“It was only once we were back and we talked about it and made a few batches, and friends tried them, that we thought we had something that was fairly viable,” Matt said.
Those same friends helped Matt and Katie with their first big order. After meeting with the German Fest board in 2013, Matt thought he could get the pretzel into the next year’s festival.
Watch: Milwaukee Pretzel Company started by husband and wife duo.
The organizers had another thought. Matt says, “They tried them and were very straight-faced; we didn't know what they thought. Well, they called us later that afternoon and said, ‘We actually have a vendor spot open for this festival. Can you do it?’ I'm like, ‘No, that's three weeks away, we can't do it. But thank you.’ But Katie is like, ‘We can do it.’” They made 2,000 pretzels for the festival and sold out.
Pretzels were made in three different locations as the company continued to outgrow each space. Eventually, they settled in Milwaukee’s Granville Woods, where they can make more than 2,000 pretzels an hour, and are currently expanding. Doubling their square footage will increase output tremendously.
Matt says, “Probably about 10,000 an hour. Twelve thousand pretzels an hour.” This will likely mean the company will have to add to their 105 employees and their current amount of equipment. Some of the company’s products are made by machines, while others are still made by hand and likely always will be.
Wessel believes the reason the pretzels are so popular is the ingredients—or really, the lack thereof. They don’t use preservatives or sugar when making their pretzels, making their pretzels fresh to order before they are shipped to customers.
Wessel says, “It’s really gratifying to see people start to talk about Milwaukee as a region for pretzels. We've even had people outside of the Midwest refer to ‘Milwaukee pretzels,’ referring to our style, and that means a lot to us.”
