Skippy's owner Mike Rothman became inspired to make soft pretzels after he moved to North Carolina in 1994.  While widely available and very popular in his home state of Pennsylvania, authentic pretzels could not be found in the Winston-Salem area.  Mike experimented with several recipes and took lots of tasting trips around Pennsylvania before finding just the right recipe.

 The recipe that was finally chosen was from a Pennsylvania family that has been making soft pretzels for several generations and Mike was very lucky that they chose to share their secrets with him.  Mike's pretzel guru was Glenn Smith, and he came to North Carolina in June of 1997 to train Mike in the art of pretzel making.  The Carolina Dutch Pretzel Company was born, and Mike left his computer career to follow a dream.

Mike sold the pretzels through vending at local events and festivals, as well as wholesaling them to several schools and businesses in the Mocksville and Winston-Salem area.  After a few years, Mike starting thinking about centralizing his operation into a retail outlet.  He had sold hot dogs in pretzel buns as part of his vending and they were a huge hit.  He decided to open a sandwich shop featuring his soft pretzel rolls.

Mike bought New York Bagels and Deli on Hanes Mall Boulevard in Winston-Salem in June 2001.  He operated the restaurant as a bagel shop for several months while learning the ropes and refining his concept.  The restaurant officially became Skippy's in April 2002, serving hot dogs and sandwiches on pretzel rolls.  The hot dogs and hand cut french fries were even more popular than Mike expected, and are what Skippy's is known for today.

     


By the way, Skippy's is named for a chubby little dog with a bad leg who didn't live quite long enough to see her people achieve much success.  Her name was actually Bear, but she was a loving and brave Schipperke who deserved to have a restaurant named in her honor.