Pretzels are a great snack option for many because most of the time they can be vegan, kosher, low calorie, and affordable. They can be prepared sweet or savory, paired with a variety of dips or spreads, and can be served soft and fresh, or crunchy from a bag. April is Soft Pretzel Month and to celebrate, I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at Milwaukee Pretzel Company, and dive a bit deeper into their exponential growth since their start 13 years ago, when owners Matt & Katie Wessel decided to go all in and make 2,000 pretzels in one weekend for their debut at Milwaukee’s Germanfest.
What started as a passion project to create the best homemade Bavarian pretzel in Matt and Katie’s apartment after time living abroad, is now a full-scaled operation that ships to 49 states in all forms including e-commerce, grocery stores, direct-to-home ship, festivals, fast food and restaurant partnerships, even baseball stadiums. “The size and scale of our operations always surprises people. Especially our local fans who don’t always realize the reach our products have around the country.” Says Lauren Nachtigall, Events & Tours Manager for Milwaukee Pretzel Company. She assisted in developing the factory tour program in summer 2025, and now leads tours to the public on Thursdays and Fridays as well as large group tours throughout the week. “During our busier months, we are usually making about 20,000 pounds of dough per day. What we make with that dough is different every day!” Their two industrial-sized dough mixers, hilariously named Mary-Kate and Ashley, work hard in making the pretzel dough for the production line for separating, twisting, cutting, bathing, proofing, and baking.
Although the pretzel making process has been scaled up to fit business needs, the Bavarian values always remain at the core of the operation. Every pretzel larger than 10 oz is still hand-rolled in the factory, including one of their bestsellers, the Bavarian Beast. However, hand-rolling is not the only German tradition that Matt and Katie brought with them from their travels. “…We have worked really hard to always ensure that the pretzels we make match the flavor profile of what we fell in love with when living in Munich. Even as we’ve scaled, the quality of our product and that “Bavarian beer garden pretzel” experience has been a non-negotiable constant.” Says Matt Wessel. “We also fondly remember the slower pace of life we enjoyed when living abroad, and we try really hard to enable positive work-life balances with our staff. That can be hard to do with a rapidly growing company and the faster pace of life we have here in the States, but it’s a constant goal and we talk about it often as a team.” The Milwaukee production floor does not have a third shift and shuts down for the weekend, ensuring the work-life balance remains a priority for the teams.
Apart from the taste, there was another thing missing from Germany… Gemütlichkeit. A term that doesn’t have a direct English translation, but as a German speaker myself, the best I can do is: an embodiment of cozy, good feeling, good times, wholesome, sunshine and rainbows. Neighbors helping neighbors is Gemütlichkeit, and so is enjoying a beer at Summerfest over Lake Michigan as the sun sets. The Wessels wanted to bring this feeling into their lives and company, too, and they did this through community. With Milwaukee being Matt & Katie’s hometown, this was simple (and a non-negotiable). The Wessels said, “from the moment we decided to put ‘Milwaukee’ in our company’s name, we felt an obligation to build a company that would make Milwaukee proud,” and this radiates throughout the organization. “Business owners serve the communities simply by employing people and creating jobs, but we wanted to do more, and our fundraising program has been an awesome way to do that — not just in Milwaukee, but in communities throughout the country.”
In addition to a whopping 50% kickback to partnering organizations, sustainability is also important to this local production, and being mindful of waste. The floor workers have coined pretzels that don’t pass quality tests as “rejectzels,” and are either sent to local farms and used as animal feed, or are re-worked for other secondary uses, like their new “schnibbles,” a crunchy, well-seasoned, slow baked snack. I was delighted to learn that the farms who receive discarded products for feed, send butter right back to the factory for pretzel ingredients, resulting in a beautiful, pretzel-y circle of life (what came first, the cow, the butter, or the pretzel?).
As Milwaukee Pretzel’s operation continues to grow, Matt & Katie don’t forget their roots, or that one weekend at Germanfest that started it all. Even selling out early and having to make more overnight. “That weekend crystalized for us the key pillars that we still use in our business today — employees, customers, quality and community. We could not have pulled off that weekend without the people who helped us make and sell the pretzels.”
Milwaukee Pretzel Company celebrates National Pretzel Month every day, but we can celebrate them in a few ways this month:
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Take a factory tour – Tours are offered to the public on Thursdays and Fridays, and accommodations can be made for groups of 10 or more including field trips, corporate outings, day centers, and tour bus itineraries.
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Support them this summer – Milwaukee Pretzel Co. will be in the community if you keep a weather eye. If you find yourself at a Brewers game, any festival taking place at Henry Maier Festival Park, Wisconsin State Fair, a partnering restaurant, brewery, grocery stores, or are meandering the Aldi Find aisle on a lucky day… Who knows?
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Cater – If you are planning a shindig, you can bring fresh pretzels and spreads to your party. From little bites to whole 5oz pretzels, they offer big party boxes and a variety of cheeses & mustards to match any mood.
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Create your own Gemütlichkeit – Matt and Katie Wessel still enjoy their pretzels traditionally with salt or cheese in one hand, a beer in the other, and sometimes, according to Katie, with melted gruyere and bacon (BRB, trying that immediately). But they always find time to slow down, enjoy life, and savor every bite.
On a cold, rainy Thursday, as I walked through the factory door, I thought I would be taking a standard, loud factory tour of how simple soft pretzels are made. Instead, the warm air embraced me immediately. I succumbed to the overwhelming smell of fresh, warm bread. I was greeted with a friendly smile, and surprised with a fresh pretzel right off the factory line at the end of the tour. I closed my eyes, and I was immediately brought back to my time spent in Germany, in Munich, at Oktoberfest, my stomach filled to the brim with pretzels and beer, just as Matt and Katie Wessel did years ago before they started a company that would end up shaping the food and festival culture in Milwaukee, and becoming a city and hospitality staple. I was greeted with warmth, with good times, with history, and culture… I was greeted with Gemütlichkeit.
(Gwen at Munich Oktoberfest, 2018)
Learn more: https://www.milwaukeepretzel.com/
- *For information, catering, and factory tours,contact: lauren@milwaukeepretzel.com
- **Quotes from Lauren Nachtigall, Matt & Katie Wessel
- Location: 8050 N Granville Woods Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53223
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Author Gwen Eckhardt (2026)