When walking into The Philly Soft Pretzel Factory, customers should always expect one thing: a warm pretzel.

"When you walk in, expect to get a warm pretzel, always," said Jennifer Rosania, owner of the shop. "If you get a cold one, let me know."

The Philly Pretzel Factory, 124 S. Allen St., opened for the first time today amidst the construction and preparation for the 42nd annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

Two students standing at the counter in front of the window eating pretzels both said they were enjoying the snack.

"They're delicious, and being from out of the state I've always just had Auntie Anne's and I think this place is better," Zoey Bouchelle (senior-economics) said.

Living outside of Philadelphia where there's a Philly Pretzel Factory near her house, Kaleen Adami (senior-criminal justice) said she is glad there is one in State College, too.

Jennifer Rosania and her husband Dave, who own the shop, relocated from Philadelphia to open the store in State College.

"We wanted to find a place that didn't already have a pretzel shop, and the location was just too good to resist -- State College has everything," Jennifer Rosania said.

The shop offers different kinds of pretzels. There's a classic pretzel twisted into the shape of a bow tie, mini pretzels, pretzel nuggets and hot dogs and sausages wrapped in pretzel dough.

The shop also has party trays which have more pretzel options, including onion and poppyseed. There are also dips available for the pretzels -- cheese, mustard, cinnamon and chocolate.

Delivery is also something they hope to start in the future for larger orders, Dave Rosania said.

He added customers should come into the shop to not only buy themselves some pretzels, but also to stop by and see how the whole operation works.

When entering the shop, and even through its large windows that face out onto Allen Street, customers can see the pretzel-making process. Also, windows down a hallway inside the shop allow customers to get an even closer look.

"The windows are made low to the ground for children to watch," Jennifer Rosania said. "I'm hoping that on slow mornings we can bring kids to the shop for class trips and they

can learn about the whole process."

It would be really neat to have kids come in and get to experience everything, she said.

Going through the whole process Jennifer Rosania motioned to the pretzels, which sat on large trays stacked high above her head, and explained how they are created.

To create the pretzels 50-pound bags of mix are added to a large mixer with yeast -- and a secret ingredient. The machine mixes everything together and then the mixture is removed from the mixer in balls the size of a basketball, she said.

Those are put into a machine called a hopper, which rolls the dough into strips. The dough is then hand rolled into a pretzel twist and placed in a large refrigerator for about 20 minutes. The shop can make more than 1,200 pretzels an hour this way.

After being refrigerated, the dough is put into a bath, or water solution, and then goes into the oven to bake.

The shop in State College will be the 91st store, Jennifer Rosania said. She added about half of the stores in the chain are already open, and there are still about 90 more to open.

The shop will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for now, but Dave Rosania said on Thursday, Friday and Saturday they are going to be open until about 3 a.m. With a laugh, Jennifer Rosania said her husband would be taking that shift.

By the end of the week, the store will be accepting Lioncash and it already takes credit cards, Dave Rosania said.

When asked about another pretzel shop, Jim's Soft Pretzel Bakery, which is still under construction, Jennifer Rosania said competition is always good.

"State College is such a big town, I'm not worried," she said. "We wish them only the best of luck."