“I was born in Saginaw, grew up in Freeland, and my family moved to Oregon when I was 19. At first we lived on the coast, right on the border of California and Oregon, and it was beautiful. We lived next to the redwood forest, which is a place I never thought I’d be, especially growing up in Freeland.
Eventually, I moved up to Portland. It’s an amazing food city, and that’s where I learned how to eat. I was a very picky eater growing up, but there I became friends with chefs who were constantly like, ‘Chloe, try this beef tongue’ or ‘try these mussels’ or ‘try this blood sausage’. It was stuff I would have never, ever ordered on my own, but when you have the chef who made it looking at you and say, ‘Try this’, you try it.
I lived there for 10 years, then the pandemic happened and both my grandparents got sick. I moved back to be closer to them. About nine months later, I moved back to Portland to start again, and the same day I was supposed to sign a lease for a new apartment, my mom called me and told me that my grandpa had cancer. So instead of signing the lease, I booked a flight and moved home. It was tough because part of you wants to be selfish and create the life that you want where you feel comfortable, but I had dealt with my grandma passing away when I wasn't there, and I still think about it. So I just knew I had to be there with my family.
I had been living with a friend in a very expensive house. I had to make rent and could not find a job anywhere because restaurants and other places in the service industry were all shut down. At the same time, I was baking every day just for fun—I didn’t think anyone was going to buy anything from me. And my friend was like, we’re going to the store right now and I’m buying you a 25-pound bag of flour and tomorrow, you're gonna bake something and give it to your friends.
So, the next morning, I woke up at 5AM and thought, ‘What sounds good?’ I kept thinking about salt, and looked at recipes for pretzels. I looked in my fridge and I found jalapenos and garlic and stuff, so I made a batch of pretzels with those ingredients. I didn't have a car, so I would walk to my friend’s houses, or take the bus or ride my bike and just gave them out for free.
Word of mouth spread extremely fast, and a week later, I started my Instagram, and immediately started getting orders from strangers. It made me feel so good—I had never put myself out there in that way, or had that much confidence in myself. I just had to be brave and push myself to do it, and to see people excited about what I was doing was amazing.
Within a week, I sold enough pretzels to make rent on time, and that was the beginning of Pretzel Prize.”
“I’m very proud of my pretzels. I think they’re very good! But it’s also important to me for the business to be as authentic to me as possible. I’m a creative person, so I love drawing these little people on the bags, making fun videos or posts on Instagram, or designing merch. All of that is super fun for me.
I announce the flavor of the week and other special flavors on Wednesdays, and then begin taking orders. Fridays are pickup days. A lot of people ask me if I will do pre-orders and orders on more days. But I love creating anticipation to make people excited for Friday. I like having time to myself and being able to spend so much more time with my family. When I lived in Portland, I would only see my mom once a year and my grandparents every couple of years, so now that I finally have that time, I want to take advantage of that.”
“I lived in Portland all through my 20s, so I feel like I grew up there in a way. It felt like home. I didn't see my family that often, but all my friends there became my family, you know? So it was very scary moving back. I'd never thought I would move back to where I grew up. After I moved back, the first year was hard because it was the pandemic and I really couldn't go out and meet anyone.
As things started to relax, I started going to coffee shops and that’s when I started meeting people. They introduced me to other creative, interesting people. A lot of them have their own businesses as well, so its fun to bounce ideas off of each other and brainstorm, and get advice. We talk things out and that helps so much because it can change my perspective and give me ideas I wouldn’t have had myself. We help each other, promote each other.
Moving back was scary, but now I feel lucky to have a really solid group of people in my life.”
–Chloe Cerva, Pretzel Prize
