HOLLAND, Mich — If you are looking for that last-second gift for a loved one— can I make a recommendation?
Pretzels.
Think about it – have you ever seen a sad person eat a pretzel? The answer is no.
Plus— Friday, April, 26th is National Pretzel Day!
"It's something that just brings a lot of people joy. And it's just a really fun food," Laura VanPutten, co-owner of the Knot Spot in Holland.
From ballgames and fairs to even weddings – if you see pretzels, you know you're going to have a good time. And it's that attitude that helped push the VanPutten family into the pretzel game and start the Knot Spot.
In 2019, the VanPutten's and some family friends decided to chase the dream.
"I've always had a dream of being a part of a startup business that I could help direct and be a part of, and help grow and the challenges of that and building a culture and a community within a workplace," Mitch VanPutten, the other co-owner, told us. "It was always kind of something that I was excited about trying, and I never really had a chance to. Then the idea of doing this with my wife and my daughter, you know, kind of put it over the top."
"It became a family business with these two families working together, and we built it from the ground up," added Laura.
Five years later that dream is alive and well. With the The Knot Spot's focus is on catered events, like weddings, and working at the Holland Farmer’s Market— but don't worry— drop-ins are welcome if you have a hankering for the twisted salty snack.
"The most popular pretzel is what we call the original salt," Mitch told me. "It's a traditional pretzel just like you would think of. And then the pizza pretzels are our stuffed one that's the most popular and that's pepperoni and mozzarella and Italian seasonings."
But it's not the pretzels that are key to making this business run. This West Michigan family found it's their extended family – both inside and outside of their bakery – that is the secret ingredient for success.
"I think we've got a good combination from a family standpoint, and then we've got a great team of people that fill in all the gaps, and we have a lot of gaps, but amazing, amazing friends that work with us on a daily basis," Mitch said. "We're just very blessed and grateful for."
"Just relationships with the like our staff that we hire and like really trying to build into them and create a space that like a place that they love working a place that they love, like waking up in and come into work," Laura said.
And the whole team is gearing up for what should be another busy summer, starting withTuilp Time on May 3rd.
"We get people that visit Holland, you know they're in tourist season in the summer," Mitch added. "Lots of people from out of town or even out of the country and from Germany who consider themselves pretzel experts, and they'll most of them like our pretzels a lot. Some of them have told us that it's maybe a little too sweet a little too Americanized, maybe but we totally disagree."
If you want to decide for yourself check out the link to their site here.
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