When I sat down to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs this past Sunday, I had the usual lineup of snacks and drinks on hand: chips, salsa, queso, Miller Lite.
But as a Birds fan born and raised on the East Coast, that victory in KC (thanks, Travis Kelce!) tasted even sweeter than usual. Or saltier, I guess. Because I had also picked up an order from Sea Dawg’s Pretzels, a new Philly-style soft pretzel bakery based out of a Hopkins kitchen.
Sea Dawg’s creator Courtney Algeo grew up in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, and, after moving away for a few years, went to college at Temple University in Philadelphia. While she and her husband relocated to Minnesota in 2009, the attitude of the region still really resonates with her.
“The thing about Philly is—I don’t know if people will agree with this—but I’ve always felt that Philly is not too full of itself,” she explains. “It’s a little bit like a couple that’s been married for 80 years, and they just don’t need to brush their teeth as often. They’ve got no airs about them. You take it or you leave it. It’s no bullshit, it’s very accepting. My friend Lea always says, ‘Philadelphians are kind, not nice.’”
Philly also has great by-the-slice pizza joints, and that’s what Algeo originally dreamed of opening—a pizza and pinball restaurant on Mainstreet in Hopkins, one that didn’t serve alcohol, so it’d be kid-friendly and welcoming to the area’s Somali community. But opening a restaurant ain’t easy, and she and her husband were driving back to Philly when he said, “What if, instead of doing pizza, we just started with Philly pretzels?”
Pretzels are a big deal in PA and in Philly specifically; well-established urban lore asserts that the city eats 12 times the national average, and National Pretzel Day (April 26) got its start in Lancaster before then-Gov. Ed Rendell made it a statewide holiday in 2003. “Soft pretzels are to Philadelphia as crepes are to Paris,” according to The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, and while “baguette” would certainly make for a stronger metaphor, the point stands. (What is Philly if not the Paris of the East Coast?)
Algeo had experience making pizza throughout high school and college, which made it seem like a natural fit. “It turns out, pretzels are also pretty natural,” she says. She did, however, spend several weeks in a haze of “obsessive pretzel making” during which she perfected her recipe.
Algeo experimented with a number of different recipes, tweaking and updating them so that the resulting Sea Dawg recipe is entirely her own. Pretzels have to go into a baking soda or lye bath, “so I’ve had to get comfortable working with lye in my kitchen, which has been interesting,” she says.
Philly pretzels are softer and doughier than their traditional German counterpart—not buttery, but bready and liberally salted. They're also figure-eight shaped, an innovation that came about in the 1920s because pretzel-makers figured out that you could make more of them, more quickly, that way.
Algeo’s Philly-style pretzels are cut to be about three and a half ounces, making them perfectly hand-held and not overwhelming. “And you don’t feel like you have to share because there’s not quite enough,” she says.
Over the past few weeks, she’s been delivering them to her Hopkins neighbors—mostly strangers—for taste-testing via a local WhatsApp group. Those folks have provided the early reviews that appear on the Sea Dawg’s website, for example, “Those were the best soft pretzels we’ve ever had in our lives. We literally had no idea they could be that good.”
Beginning September 21, you’ll be able to try ‘em for yourself; that’s when the email and phone lines open. Simply call or write to place your order for single pretzels ($3 each), four pretzels ($10), or a bag o’ bites ($4), along with accompanying dips (French’s, whiz, honey, Top the Tater). But they’ll go with almost anything—after I wolfed down the whiz with the bag o’ bites, I enjoyed the full-size pretzels with this beer cheese dip from internet recipe queen Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Algeo jokes that the pretzel is a lot like your average Philadelphian, and not because they’re prone to climbing poles. “It’s just humble. It’s humble food. It’s not trying to be fancy, it’s not trying to be anything it’s not. It’s a hunk of bread that tastes good when you want it.”
“In this time—this is going to sound so stupid, pretzels aren’t going to bring us together,” she laughs. “But in this time where everything feels so uncertain and everything’s so expensive, these simple, inexpensive, humble pleasures, I think, are going to be more important than ever.”
Sea Dawg’s Pretzels
Beginning September 21: Email or call 267-225-2431 to pre-order
Pick up: Wednesdays from 6-9 p.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
