Don’t mind that Adam Shapiro makes the tastiest pretzels I’ve ever encountered. And Yo! He is quite the character.
But have you seen his Instagram?
The owner, chief chef and deliverer of the soft, Philly style Shappy Pretzel has an awe-inspiring Instagram feed that boggles the mind in what he can do on a phone.
But before I dive in, let me confess that I’ve been spending a lot of time with Adam (or “Shappy” as his friends call him) for an upcoming Photowalks episode with both him and Netflix’s Phil Rosenthal which will be airing soon on Tubi, the free TV streaming app.
Beyond pretzels, Shapiro is a working character actor, with an accomplished actress wife (Katie Lowes) and two young kids, ages 2 and 3. But then, ask him what roles people associate with him when they see him on the street. It’s not what you might think.
“I know you….you’re the pretzel guy!”
Which he takes as a personal best, since he started the business in his kitchen just a a little over a year ago, and expanded into Los Angeles-only sales at pop-up stores. No mail order, yet.
As a thespian, he’s been in nearly 100 different TV and movie roles, including the current (“Mank”) a Netflix series (“Never Have I Ever’) and the “Steve Jobs” movie. He was on Broadway in the musical “Waitress,” and he flies to Petaluma often to be a voice in the NBA 2K20 video game.
But right now, in-between acting gigs, he’s all about spreading the love for his pretzels. After making them in a Los Angeles bakery, he’s out and about all week at different stores in Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Silver Lake, El Segundo and Studio City, personally writing “Yo” and your name on each package of pretzel bliss.
And he spreads the word about his appearances, via two apps that he pairs with Instagram: Mojo and Over. Mojo offers templates for Instagram stories, while Over, which is owned by web host company GoDaddy, is a graphic program aimed at influencers. Both cost $9.99 monthly.
The apps let him do crazy graphical things to his pretzel designs, and jazz up hum drum Instagram Stories into little works of art. As he told The Hollywood Reporter, “Our Instagram is a party.”
It’s a great shindig, but it still doesn’t compare to the thrill of taking a bite of the Shap’s pretzel bliss. And don’t get me started on the pretzel with the Oreo filling.
The Shappy Pretzel pop-ups will be out this weekend in Malibu at the Fred Segal store on Saturday and the Pacific Palisades farmer’s market on Sunday.