Description:

If you want to watch hand rolled sourdough pretzels being made, head on out to South West End Avenue to Hammond’s Pretzel Bakery. It is the oldest continuously family operated hand-made pretzel bakery in America! They have been voted the #1 hard pretzel 24 years in a row in the Lancaster County magazine.

During the Great Depression Bill Lichty lost his job and asked his grandfather, who had been a pretzel baker, to help him start a bakery. They used the grandfather’s recipe, turned their garages into a bakery and began the business that is known today. They are still in the same location set amid tiny homes on the same block.

Now into its 4th & 5th generation, Hammond pretzels are still committed to the old pretzel making methods used by their ancestors. Pretzels are rolled, shaped and twisted by hand – believing that the hands-on approach yields a better product than any machine could ever do.

The Hammond family has been making hand-rolled pretzels in Lancaster PA since 1931. They use a family recipe that dates back to the 1800’s. To ensure and maintain their high standards of quality, they limit their production. They can produce more than 33,000 pretzels in a day – done by only 11 pretzel rollers using an old-fashioned oven that has been in use since 1946.