Lewis Lazare: They must be doing something right. Former Ogilvy & Mather advertising executive Kim Holstein and her husband, Scott, began making pretzels 10 years ago in Kim’s Lincoln Park studio apartment.
A good product and some savvy marketing and publicity efforts have enabled the Holsteins to grow Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels into a company that produces 40,000 pretzels a day in a 50,000-square-foot bakery. The pretzels are distributed to Whole Foods, Jewel and Barnes & Noble stores, and on television through QVC, among other outlets.
On Thursday, the Holsteins will take the next step, opening their first pretzel-themed eatery called the Twisting Cafe inside the Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview. They also have tapped Dawn Schultz from Lou Malnati’s as the company’s new marketing director to help with the cafe brand launch.
Good Studios/Chicago also was brought on board to design various aspects of the cafe concept, where customers will be able to twist their own pretzels and dine on “pretziolas,” a toasted pretzel sandwich.
