Gus’ Pretzels to reopen Tuesday, just days after driver slams into building

ST. LOUIS – Gus’ Pretzels, a popular St. Louis pretzel shop, plans to reopen Tuesday after a driver slammed into the building over the weekend.

The building is still tapped off as of Tuesday morning, and there’s a lot of debris all over the sidewalk, but masonry teams have declared the building safe for customers to reenter.

Gus Koebbe, the third-generation owner of Gus’ Pretzels, said this was quite an ordeal.

A gas station across the street captured surveillance video showing the driver slamming into the front of the business around 5:45 p.m. The driver fled the scene but was later caught by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

“I don’t think anybody realized it was three layers deep until obviously now,” said Koebbe in an interview with FOX 2 on Monday. “It’s amazing how fast the driver was going. It’s an old building, a lot of history. It’s going to be a tough one to come back from, but we’re dedicated to business obviously. We’ve been doing it for 104 years.”

Koebbe says he and employees spent several hours cleaning up inside the building on Monday.

They are expected to reopen from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Gus’ Pretzels is located at 1820 Arsenal Street in the Benton Park neighborhood.

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