Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce features Covington’s Yankee Doodle Deli and Marilyn Baker in this Spotlight. Baker makes great stuff — including fancy pretzels (Zels) — and she has a great social purpose as well.
Also enjoy this feature on Yankee Doodle Deli that appeared June, 2016 in the NKyTribune:
By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune reporter
Though undocumented, the story of the pretzel’s beginning is a saintly one. As the story goes – at least one version – an Italian monk cut strips of dough and folded them into a shape resembling a child crossing its arms in prayer, baked them and gave them as “pretriolas,” or “little “rewards,” to children who memorized their prayers.
Similar stories feature a French monk held hostage in Germany, along with French bakers.
Marilyn Baker’s history with the pretzel doesn’t involve monks or children, but there is something of a saintly nature in how she operates her Covington-based Yankee Doodle Deli pretzel business; giving work to clients of Covington’s The Point and the Life Learning Center.
She also looks to hire second chance employees, or individuals who are looking to build a resume after periods of incarceration.
Her route to founding the successful business had as many twist and turns as the salty – sometimes sweet – pretzel snack, or Zels, as she calls them.
Baker earned her professional degrees at Northwestern University, Boston University and Portland State University, and not a single one has anything to do with running a business. Instead, Baker studied speech pathology and speech therapy.
Packaging the Zels
In 2004, while working at Cincinnati’s Drake Center, a rehabilitation hospital, as a speech-language pathologist, she began cooking for co-workers on the side to distract from the sadness of her beloved Sheltie, Yankee Doodle, who passed away.
“I was the lady with the dog,” says Baker. “She passed and I was just really sad and I started cooking for my friends. I had no intention of leaving.”
She began by preparing homemade, healthy alternatives to fast food for her female colleagues.
“The women were thrilled to have things they could buy from me and take home for dinner that night,” says Baker.
Among the healthy snacks she made were her flavored pretzels. She would buy Snyder’s pretzels and enhance their flavor with her homemade sweet and savory flavorings.
One morning, as she stepped off the elevator loaded with shopping bags brimming with food orders, her boss pulled her to the side to gently suggest things were a bit “out of control.”
“It was the best thing that ever happened,” says Baker. “I had a lab coat with money on one side and orders on the other side.”
She stopped selling her food, but went to the Drake Center’s gift shop with an idea.
“I said, “I’m in trouble with the pretzels,”” says Baker. “They said, ‘Would you like to come up with an item in the gift shop?’”
New bourbon Zels
They struck a deal and Baker had her first account.
“At that point I had to get a commercial kitchen and it just kicked me to the next level,” says Baker. “I used to seal the bags with a clothes iron. We’ve come a long way.”
For a while, Baker shared kitchens with other businesses throughout tri-state.
“When I first started, we would drive to Athens, Ohio for a commercial kitchen – head out early and be there all day,” says Baker.
Then for a while, she prepared her pretzels in a Madison, IN kitchen, then found one available closer in Burlington.
All the while she was hoping to find something in Covington. Eventually she connected with The Point, which offers inclusive programs through a fully integrated approach in community settings to individuals with special needs. The Point happened to own a building on Scott Street called The Point Pavilion where catering services were available through McHale’s Catering.
“They would let me come in and I would have to be out before the bride came in, but we cooked there a lot of Saturdays and Sundays, and that’s how I got hooked up with The Point,” says Baker.
It would be a relationship that would prove beneficial for Baker in the years to come, as well as for The Point.
“I’ve always wanted to help the cognitively impaired, so it was a perfect partnership with The Point,” says Baker.
Four years ago, Baker’s Yankee Doodle Deli pretzels – named in honor of Baker’s beloved Sheltie – finally found its home in Covington and moved into a sliver of a building at 1526 Scott Blvd.
Working alongside Baker is a talented team of young employees from The Point as well as The Life Learning Center.
“Obviously we want to make delicious pretzels, but at the same time provide jobs for people who can’t possibly get the jobs traditionally,” says Baker. “It helps with our bottom line and it helps them to have references for future jobs.”
Baker says The Point provides coaching and support for the clients who work for her, and she mentors them.
Zels come in six flavors
Together they take the pretzels that are delivered to them twice a week from the Snyder’s of Hanover distributor, roast them in Baker’s variety of flavors and ship them far and wide.
“Basically we sauté them, for lack of a better term,” says Baker. “Then they go into bins and the employees fill the bags.”
Pretzels are packaged in one ounce, three ounce and eight ounce bags.
Tina Syblik, lead supervisor for Yankee Doodle Deli, who did not come to her job by way of The Point or Life Learning Center, says she enjoys her work because it’s something she knows she can do.
Tina likes knowing that her workplace is one where she feels confident in her skill.
“I don’t have a lot of confidence in myself and I know that when I come here that I know how to fill the bags, and I do some of the cooking,” says Syblik. “It’s just that I feel that I can do it and that makes me feel good.”
Every pretzel shape at Yankee Doodle Deli has a different flavor.
“We have six flavors and the newest one is Bourbon,” says Baker.
She says they tried numerous Boubons before finding one that produced the right Bourbon flavor in the pretzel. The winner: Old Granddad.
“We were on the Rachel Ray show as ‘snack of the day,’” says Baker. “They called twice a week but only gave us 36 hours to get 170 bags shipped overnight. The third time they called, I had to say ‘Yes.’”
Yankee Doodle, the business’s namesake
Her Zels were also named best bar snack by Cincinnati Magazine.
Among the many flavors Baker offers are cinnamon, citrus, honey, blazing hot “Bla-Zels,” and “Spi-Zels,” which are coated in mixed seasonings as well as a generous coating of garlic.
Yankee Doodle Deli Zels can be found at local venues such as Cork ‘n Bottle in Crescent Springs, College Hill Coffee Company, Cincinnati Nature Center, Coffee Emporium in Hyde Park, Over The Rhine and Queen City Square, Kremer’s Market in Crescent Springs and the Party Source in Bellevue.
Baker says the new Yankee Doodle Deli website will offer an option for locals to purchase pretzels online and pick them up at the Covington location.
And because Baker’s pretzel story began as a legacy to a good dog, it’s only fitting that good dogs have been part of her story along the way.
In 2005, after Yankee Doodle passed away, another Sheltie, in need of a good home, found its way to Baker. Karma, as she was named, brought good karma to the business, says Baker.
Today, a spirited poodle, Shih-tzu and Pomeranian mix named Zellie – named in honor of the pretzels, of course – will be alongside Baker, wagging its way through Yankee Doodle Deli’s next successful chapter.
Baker says she’ll offer a money back guarantee for the pretzels on the website, giving a full refund for anyone who doesn’t like them.
“But I don’t ever expect to have to honor that because I think people will love them,” she says.
Yankee Doodle Deli owner Marilyn Baker at her shop in Covington.
