Mark Anthony of Mark Anthony’s Pretzels in Colorado Springs makes his food for the love of it. A transplant from Pennsylvania, he has lived and worked everywhere from Germany to Texas to Kentucky. Anthony is known in the Colorado Springs area for his pretzels. But his diversity of food knowledge and preparation stretches from meatloaf family meals to Italian specialties and maybe even a pretzel Cuban sandwich.
“I like to say my food is memories. My food, when you eat it, it brings you back. When you eat my meatloaf or my lasagna, you’d be like, ‘Oh my God, this lasagna is like Mama Sweeney!’ Because Mama Sweeney is where I got the recipe. When you eat the meatloaf, you’re like, ‘Wow, this meatloaf reminds me of my mom!’ That’s because I got my meatloaf recipe from my mom. So, when I look for recipes, one thing I never do is get on Facebook and Instagram. I go to Goodwill and the library and check out books from 20 and 30 years ago. Then I do everything by hand. My lasagna is fresh pasta. I use ricotta cheese. I make my own marinara. I make my own Bolognese. I don’t farm things out. Everything I do is by hand. I mean, we roll between 8,000 and 15,000 pretzels a week by hand.”
Surviving Through Pretzel Ingenuity
Anthony grew up in Pennsylvania but “I’ve had to fight for everything my entire life.” When he came up with the pretzel idea, it was in 2007 in Colorado Springs. He recounts at that time in the Springs, jobs were scarce. He recalls the Burger King on Powers opening and 2,000 men from the age of 40 years old applying for a job. He realized he had to do something different using his talents to support his family and survive.
At that time Anthony thought, “OK, I only have a couple of things going for me.” He graduated from Holiday Inn University, helped open up the very first Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Resort on Hilton Head Island, and did his internship at the Crowne Plaza in Manhattan.
But when he got married, he said to his wife (who is originally from Aurora), “You know what, honey? I want to be there for my kids.” So, he got out of the food business trajectory he was on. “But I always stayed in the food business in my house. I mean, making all my own food, all my meatballs, all my family recipes, everything else.”
And then when he couldn’t find work in the Springs, he was like, “Well – I’ll just go sell pretzels on the street corner.” He borrowed $2,000 from a friend and started baking in the local Gotta Love It kitchen in Springs. After 30 days of doing that, he went door-to-door to pizza parlors and rented ovens from midnight to 5 a.m. to build his current business. “I did that for a year, and while I did that, I got enough money to get into the place I’m in now.” He has been in this location (marked only by pretzel graphics) since 2011.
Anthony jokes that his business number is his cell phone number “because I’m on the road all the time delivering pretzels. So, in this way, it’s nice and easy. It’s the weirdest business. And you have to remember, I’m doing this with no resources. No bank loans, no nothing. I’m always 15 to 30 days away from bankruptcy because I have to roll everything into growth.”
From Wholesale to Individual Customers
Before the pandemic, Anthony was selling his pretzels wholesale to companies which was a large part of the business. But when many of the businesses closed during the shutdown, Anthony had to pivot again selling directly to the customers while also offering his family dinner deals both to bolster the community and also to keep his business afloat. However, setbacks always can happen.
During the coronavirus, his ovens went bad, and he had to close them for four days because he didn’t have the money for the new ovens. “I went online and said, ‘Hey, guess what? My ovens broke down. I’ll do everything I can keep the business, but would you guys please consider buying a gift card?’” And his customers bought $8,000 worth of gift cards within 48 hours. “I mean, it brings tears to my eyes telling you that story. But right now, things are hard for the small business.”
After two years, he feels like they are wearing customers out. Anthony says he has been looking for an investor to get him $10,000 for months so he can have a line of credit at my bank. “That way I don’t have to live for every single day to survive. In companies like mine, we don’t get money from other people besides our customers. We didn’t get any corona money. We didn’t get all that stuff. We just have to outwork and out-survive everyone. And that’s the way it is with [most] every small business…not just me.”
Pivoting for a Culinary Advantage
Anthony says it goes beyond having great products, it is also being there for the local community. Anthony’s family to-go meals have become a staple though it all comes down to availability. “The way to do that is I see what the good deal going on is, right? So, if I can buy inexpensive, good quality anything at affordable prices, then that’s how I determine what my family meals are. And I only do one meal at a time, so that way I don’t lose my shirt on the meals.”
Anthony says one of the biggest disadvantages small restaurants have been that they have a set menu. “When there is a set menu, it’s fixed to other people’s costs – like if I had a sit-down restaurant right now, I would hand print my menu every single week and change it.”
His staple continues to be his pretzels. The $7 bag is his legacy item. The reason he can do the bag for seven bucks is how the chemistry works. When you put salt on top of a bread product and you have evaporation with it, it actually creates a chemical reaction that burns, and it can ruin the product. So instead of holding onto the pretzels, Anthony sells them as part of the bag. “That way people can take a dozen home for seven bucks, put them in the fridge or the freezer, and eat them throughout the week as they need them. I have customers that buy the party packs, that heat up their pretzels for the kids in the morning in the oven and put them in thermoses so they can eat them for lunch.”
Thinking Outside the Box
Anthony also thinks outside the box with pretzels. “I’m running our cheesecake pretzels now. I fill the holes with a New York cheesecake,” he says “And then I do macerated strawberries with dark chocolate on top of them. I also do apple strudel cheesecake and cherry cheesecake. So, I’ll do all these things.”
He jokes, “You can always tell how slow I am with business by the amount of specials I have.” He says the summertime, if he is doing 15,000 to 20,000 pretzels by hand a week, and delivering all over the state, then he doesn’t have time to commit to specials. “That’s why I only do the meals in the wintertime when it’s really cold.” He just brought back his cannolis paired with a chicken parm. “I make chocolate-covered cannolis.” With his lasagna meals, sometimes he’ll make a puff pastry and fill them with Nutella for desserts. “I’ll do strawberries. puff pastries, those kinds of things for desserts, So I’ll do almost anything really.”
Climate Determines Everything at Mark Anthony’s Pretzels
Anthony says climate determines everything. For Christmas, he does something special, for example, based on memory. With a winter storm, he would be running a chicken and biscuits special. “Because chicken and biscuits are what I make for my family every winter storm that we have. So, it’s basically a chicken pot pie with handmade biscuits cooked on top of them. But instead of the puff pastry on top, I hand-make my biscuits. And then you put the topping on but you do it in a casserole dish.”
Anthony always adds his spin, which makes his cooking exciting but also traditional. “I call myself an East Coast cowboy, OK? We raise horses. When you look at me, you’re like, ‘Man, this guy is a cowboy.’ When you talk to me on the phone, you’re like, ‘Man, this is the biggest Guido I’ve ever met in my life.’ Because I have an East Coast accent. And I have such an Italian flair.” But, Anthony explains, his family left Pennsylvania when he was 12 years old. But before that, he learned how to cook authentic Italian meals from his friend’s mom in the Poconos.
“I know how to make real Sunday dinners and make fresh pasta. And the Bolognese. I know the secrets to those things. And most people don’t know that [anymore].” His family moved from Pennsylvania to Florida to Kentucky, but he spent most of his adult life in Texas before coming to the Springs. “I can barbecue and do chicken fried steak and baloney sandwiches. So, for me, it’s just a very diverse thing because I’ve lived everywhere, which is perfect for the Springs, being a military town, because there’s everybody from everywhere.”
