It didn’t take long for good news to overwhelm bad news where Ben’s Soft Pretzels is concerned. The popular pretzel place in the Benton Harbor Arts District announced last week that rising rental costs would force it to close in October. Now, Ben’s has revealed they were already working on a St. Joseph location—and will move forward with that as soon as possible. There’ll still be a few weeks without tasty, fancy pretzels, but fans of the doughy delights can look forward to the downtown St. Joe location opening before the end of 2025, according to a social media post from Julie and Patrick Weckel, who own the local Ben’s Soft Pretzels franchise.
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We are truly greatful for the outpouring of kindness and encouragement after sharing the news of our Benton Harbor location. Thank you to everyone who has offered kind words, support, and good wishes for our future. There are no words adequate enough to express our appreciation for this community.
It hasn’t been a secret, but we also haven’t formally announced that we have been working on opening a second location. Due to the overwhelming response to our closing, we feel it’s the right time to share some positive news. Over the past nine months, we have been working with our new landlords and the City of St. Joseph to renovate and open a Ben’s Pretzels in downtown St. Joesph.
It’s important to us to have a fully accessible bakery. Because of this, we’ve been working with an architect to design a new entrance and bathroom that meet ADA requirements. We are grateful for our wonderful crew, who are working hard to renovate and update the location in preparation for our move. Our landlords are also investing in their building to bring improvements not only for us, but to ensure the space lasts for many years to come.
We hope to have our new location at 608 Pleasant St. open by the end of the year. Since this was originally intended to be a second location, the menu will be a bit more limited than Benton Harbor’s, as downtown already offers so many restaurants.
We’ll still feature our famous pretzels, pretzel bites, pretzel dogs, and prizzas—along with all the dips and drinks you know and love. We are excited to continue building relationships with the community, provide exceptional customer service, and, of course, serve the world’s best soft pretzels. We’ll keep everyone posted as we get closer to opening day.
In the meantime, please continue to visit us at our Benton Harbor bakery—we’ll be here through October 23rd to serve this amazing community. Looking forward, we will keep our eyes open for a future second location to complement our St. Joseph bakery. 
As always, follow us on social media to see where our Pretzel Truck and Pretzel Trailer will be—we’ll be out and about serving the community throughout the fall and winter months. If you have an event you’d like us to attend, please contact us at catering.jrpconnect@gmail.com.
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Weckel’s Benton Harbor store has been the recipient of several national awards from the Ben’s brand and has become a destination for pretzel lovers in the region. Hundreds of social media posters mourned their announcement of the Benton Harbor closing and cheered the quick word of the planned St. Joseph reopening.
608 Pleasant Street is a storefront between the St. Joseph Today Welcome Center, which fronts on State Street, and the mid-block alley next to the Huntington Bank drive-thru banking facility.
