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Gnarly Knots Pretzel Company

Super GemLombard (suburb) · Pretzels/Cafe Community-sourced, unverified
📍 100 W St Charles Rd, Lombard, IL 60148

Funi McLoughlin and Matt Finn met in Seattle roughly seventeen years ago, both working in restaurants and both dreaming about opening their own place someday.

★★★★★ 4.8 (1,065 reviews) via Google
Super GemChicago Exclusive GemDish Gem$$
Yes, a pretzel place makes an Italian beef pretzel. Yes, it's actually good. That's the whole pitch, and it works.
📈 Scores in the top 4% of Chicago Exclusive Gems on ChicagoSpecials.com

The actual pretzel idea came out of an Iron Chef-style cooking challenge they ran with friends — someone made a stuffed pretzel for the first time, and as McLoughlin put it, "it just kind of stuck." They started selling at farmers markets in 2011, opened their first real storefront in Winfield in 2013 — a tiny house with no public restrooms and no seating, brutal in summer and worse in winter — and finally moved to a proper Lombard space in 2022 with the amenities regulars had been asking for for years: indoor seating, a real coffee program, expanded hours.

The stuffed pretzels are still the reason people come — three cheese, Italian beef, a Monte Cristo version, rotating daily specials like a bacon cheeseburger stuffed pretzel — but the coffee menu has earned its own following since the move, particularly the toffee mallow iced coffee regulars specifically call out.

📸 See more of Gnarly Knots Pretzel Company
📅 Reservations not available🥡 Takeout unconfirmed 📞 (630) 376-6188 📋 View Menu / Website 📍 Directions
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Specials at Gnarly Knots Pretzel Company

(1)

Hours

MonClosed
Tue-Sat 10AM-5PM
Sun 9AM-3PM

Amenities & accessibility

🚶Walk-in only
🥡Takeout available
Wheelchair accessible

Location

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