The Pretzel Bakery, a bakery focused solely on soft pretzels, opened its second location in Cabin John on April 14. The bakery offers a variety of pretzel flavors and types, ranging from basic pretzels to pretzel calzones.  

The shop opened in 2012 and originally began as a tiny walk-up shop in Capitol Hill, where customers would walk up to buy Philadelphia-style pretzels through a dutch door. Within a few years, they outgrew this location and moved to a storefront in the same neighborhood. 

The bakery gives the option to order online to the Capitol Hill location but not to Cabin John. The menu consists of three different types of basic pretzels: original, everything seasoning and sweet. 

The cost for each pretzel depends on how many are ordered: one pretzel is $2.50, two pretzels are $5.00, three pretzels are $7.00, six pretzels are $13.00 and so on.  

There are six different types of dips for the pretzels. Three of the dips are different variations of mustard and the others are cheese and Nutella. Each of the dips ranges from $0.50 to $1.00. 

Upon walking into the shop, I smelled the strong aroma of bread baking. Then, I asked an employee for a recommendation and they told me to get a sweet pretzel. I got that along with an everything seasoning pretzel. They were both fluffy and delicious. However, the actual pretzel dough had a very weak flavor.

To go with the everything pretzel, I got a pub cheese dip. It wasn’t very dip-like, as a knife was needed to spread it on the pretzel. Needless to say, once it was on the pretzel, it tasted like a tasty cheesy mustard spread.  

The menu also contains specialty pretzel items. There are breakfast sliders, pretzel dogs with Hebrew national hot dogs, calzones, and pretzel bombs. The bombs are pretzels filled with Nutella with a frosted glaze on top. I got the pretzel dog, a hot dog wrapped in pretzel dough. When served, it was heated up to the perfect temperature. It was definitely my favorite. 

Overall, The Pretzel Bakery surpassed my expectations. It was super tasty and a great place to drop in quickly and pick up pretzels.