Local Businesses

Smales Pretzels

Smales Pretzel Bakery is currently owned by fifth generation pretzel-twister, Emma Smales and her husband Joe.

The bakery began when German-born Rudie Schaaf opened Gem City Pretzel on Warren Street in 1906, not long after he arrived in Dayton as a boy in 1885.

In 1926, his daughter, Emma Smales (the first),  moved the bakery to it’s current location at 210 Xenia Ave and renamed it Smales Pretzel Bakery.

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