DAYTON — A busy bakery has overcome obstacles this past year to continue a longtime tradition for Valentine’s Day.
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Smales Pretzel Bakery in Dayton said they’ve been getting orders all week for a certain treat that they’ve been doing for decades.
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“We make heart-shaped pretzels and we’ve been doing it for about 30 years,” owner Emma Smale said.
Smale is the fifth-generation owner of Smales Pretzel Bakery. They’ve been at their Dayton location for nearly a century.
People like Terry Towles, who comes down from Trotwood at least once a week, called the bakery “a gem.”
“We started in high school. I went to Belmont, and we used to get our pretzels there,” Towles said. “They will sell them to you for a dollar in a classroom.”
A dollar for a pretzel can be hard to come back. News Center 7 has followed how the rising cost of eggs has affected other businesses. Fortunately for the bakery, pretzels don’t use them.
Still, Smale said they’ve been impacted by higher prices of everything.
“We did suffer when flour went up a few years ago and hasn’t really gone back down, but we’ve adjusted,” she said.
On top of that, the bakery oven caught fire last August and caused them to close temporarily.
Smale said the repairs cost $25,000 and added their loyal customers are the reason they were able to stay open.
“Most of our customers that come in, we see them every week or, you know, multiple times a month or have their family brought back, she said.
Last year, 2,000 orders were placed for their Valentine’s Day pretzels. As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, they’ve jumped more than 500 orders.
Smales told News Center 7 that because of the high demand, they’re having to limit walk-in customers to a dozen pretzels for each purchase. Online orders will be the first priority.
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