Checking in with...Bob Meyer:

I had to take a trip recently and, as usual, the flight attendant brought me those little packages of mini-pretzels. Hungry as I was, that served me fine for the moment, but I couldn’t stop thinking about a real good, old pretzel: nice, warm, soft, dipped in a sweet dressing. So this week we’re checking in with a real expert, Bob Meyer from the Auntie Anne’s pretzel store, at Fashion Island.

Tell us how many varieties of pretzels you sell at your store.

We sell 12 different pretzels, including original, almond, jalapeño, garlic, glazin raizin, cinnamon sugar (the bestseller), sour cream and onion, Stix in two flavors, nuggets in two flavors, pretzel dogs in two sizes and the brand new pepperoni pretzel.

I see you won the Perfect Pretzel Award. What’s that?

The Perfect Pretzel Award is given to approximately the top 4% to 5% of enclosed mall stores for superior performance in the Auntie Anne’s three-fold philosophy of serving fresh, hot, soft, handmade pretzels, served by courteous team members, in a sparkling clean store.

Auntie Anne’s will open its 1,000th store this summer, coincidentally here in California. Twenty-six stores earned this prestigious award, and for our store it is the ninth such award in our 15 years at Fashion Island.

What kind of pretzels do you like and why?

My favorite is the relatively new Pretzel Dog. It is made with Nathan’s Brand hot dogs.

So you also love fishing. Do you catch and release or do you keep the fish? What was your best fishing trip?

We only “catch and release” everything we catch… that maintains the fishery. Best trip was a bass fishing trip to Lake El Sato in Mexico in 2007 with three sons, brother, nephew and brother-in-law. That is the best fishing lake in the world, where you can get the biggest fish. It cost a lot of money but it was well worth it. We caught hundreds of bass between us and had the trip of a lifetime!

Spin or fly rod?

Most lake fishermen fishing for bass, including myself, fish mostly with bait-casting reels for large fish and sometimes spinning reels when a smaller line is needed. Since bass fishing is done on lakes, my favorite technique is “Topwater” fishing.

Do you have a favorite fish recipe?

At home I buy and barbecue salmon sprinkled with dill, and make a cucumber/mayo/sour cream/dill weed-dipping sauce. If fish came in the shape of a pretzel, that would be my new favorite!

Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic” — good or bad?

Good! Very Good!! “Rikki don’t lose that number...”