I am from Philadelphia and have tried to bake pretzels for years following many recipes. I think an answer to your question is the in the salt. recipes say to add salt and most of us believe table salt is what they are talking about. I started using pretzel salt which is a huge crystal salt from package included with frozen department pretzels bought at Publix, Winn Dixie Etc. So instead of mixing table salt into the mix as most recipes say to do. I add the huge solid crystal salt into the second kneading. That way the salt is not evenly distributed but remains a salt crystal in the dough. From my minor understanding of bread baking, salt actually kills the yeast so why add it to the first rise.

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