Pretzel and Pizza Creations

Best new place in Hagerstown. Food is tasty, service is quality and I love the rustic/​modern décor. Please we need more restaurants like this in Hagerstown!

Having been to the Frederick location many times, I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed my experience at the new Hagerstown location on a recent busy Saturday afternoon. Love the nice — and much larger than Frederick’s — dining area. Table service is offered on weekends, which is nice. I had my old reliable sandwich, a turkey reuben. It was absolutely delicious, as was the tasty cinnamon pretzel I shared with my niece for dessert. I’ll be back for sure.

Walking through the door my stomach growled loudly because it smelled so yummy! Service was fast and food was delicious. Huge bar, lots of seating… Perfect noise level for conversations!

Pizza was excellent (he got the Omnivores Dilemma). Sandwich was excellent (Chicken Pesto on focaccia with avocado instead of tomato).
We got to-​go so things had cooled a bit by the time we got to taste.
The garlic pretzel was just meh. Garlic powder is used rather than fresh or roasted garlic. We wouldn’t get it again.
We also got the peanut butter stuffed pretzel with cinnamon & sugar and a side of hot fudge for dipping. Don’t eat this with your mom around. You might slap her, because this is slap your momma good!
Online ordering for Hagerstown isn’t working yet. Bummer. But polite staff are more than happy to take orders by phone.
Pretty diverse menu with lots of things we’d be interested in coming back to try and lots of customization options to experiment with.
We will definitely be back!

Food was amazing. They are a new business and were a little disorganized at first but that is to be expected. The second time I went I had no issues and service was great. The calzones are amazing ! I will be back !

Great addition to downtown Hagerstown! The food is made fresh every time so there is a little bit of a wait. The calzones and soft pretzels are delicious! Don’t miss the pretzel wrapped Oreos when they’re a special!!!

Went today to check it out. You order at the counter in the back. You will be given a number to put on your table when you seat yourself. They’ll bring everything out to you.
They have pizzas, calzones, pretzels and then some. The options are varied with some traditional (pepperoni and cheese) and some less traditional (chicken, sun-​dried tomato and artichoke). They also have a decent drink menu with draft and bottled craft beer, mixed drinks, and they also have an espresso machine to make cappuccinos, lattes, Americanos, etc. I saw they have ice cream as well, so affogatos are on the menu.
Food was good– creative and well executed — and it was out in a decent time. Staff was friendly and I even saw a staff member with pretzel earrings on, which was a nice little touch. Atmosphere is nice — it has a brick wall down one side, wood floors and metal accents all over. I love that they kept with the feel of the old building, which is called «The Grand» (like grand piano).
Downsides, with hopefully constructive criticism:
1. It’s expensive. My beer and calzone for one was $ 17. I don’t eat a lot and was able to kill ¾ of that calzone. A friend got a medium pizza (just enough for two people) and an iced tea, and he spent $ 21. I might expect that at certain places, but with the level of service (order at counter, self seat, no check-​ins by staff so going to get your own boxes and napkins) it did not reflect the dining experience. I think this all by itself will prevent me from going back to this place often. The value isn’t there.
2. The menu is up at the counter, where you grab it and quickly look through while the line of people behind you wait and you try to stay out of the way of the main thoroughfare for staff to move from kitchen to dining room. It’s a «creative» menu, and it was obviously something the management spent time on. People should be able to peruse it. I would recommend having a table tent version on each table to allow people to peruse it while they wait for their food. It might even entice a curious foodie like me to come back, knowing that there are heretofore unexplored and exciting options that await me. Also, maybe rope off the line at the counter and put the menus further back from it.
3. They need to work on the clarity of where to order. The rope idea above might help. They already have some signage to indicate where to go, and once you figure it out, you feel silly because it should have been obvious to you. But I saw more than one person make the same stand-​and-​wait-​for-​someone-​to-​tell-​you-​what-​to-​do-​while-​you-​casually-​take-​in-​your-​surroundings stance that my party had when entering the door.
So, all that said, I think it’s worth a shot. I think I should give it another shot once they work out some kinks, because all businesses go through an awkward learning stage. And after all, the food is good.

We went in the evening of a Pop-​up shop event, fully aware that it would be busy — we didn’t mind a bit of a wait. What we didn’t anticipate was how uncoordinated the staff would be on this night. We sat down, with no menus available and waited to flag down a staff member for one. What occurred next was the staff tending to 3 other tables that sat down after us, handing them menus and asking for drinks — my spouse had to shout to get the attention of a server. We had menus, but then waited for drink orders. I requested a «seasonal apple cider» and glass of water, along with the rest of our drinks. We waited 10 minutes before a staff member came back to ask for my ID. I reiterated my drink order, the server apologized and another 10 minutes passed. Eventually, we were served our drinks… my water was no more than a few ounces of water in a shooter glass and the cider tasted like watered down instant cider mix. I was a bit upset at this point and decided it best to go elsewhere. We asked for our bill, waited another 10 minutes — soon a server came by and said «Your order will be out soon!» My spouse told them we were just waiting on the bill. I was really looking forward to trying the food, but I doubt we will revisit unless the staff organization is rectified.