DALLAS – Ah, that twisty, doughy bit of indulgence has gone mainstream. The soft pretzel, once the dominion of street vendors and specialty shops, is slowly taking over menus at fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, USA Today reports. The trend is so hot right now, that pretzels are moving beyond sandwiches into other areas as well.

Wendy’s, which triggered the national craze for pretzel bread sandwiches with the debut of its Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger in June, will launch a chicken pretzel-bun sandwich soon. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven has started to offer its Diablo Chicken Ranch Sandwich nationwide. 7-Eleven said that using a pretzel bun for a sandwich made perfect sense. “We know that one of the first senses you want to hit is a visual wow,” said Kelly Buckley.

Other restaurants with pretzels on the menu include Blimpie, Dunkin’ Donuts, Red Robin, Ruby Tuesday, Sonic and Starbucks. However, sandwiches aren’t the only menu items to add pretzels. Dairy Queen had a Choco-Covered Peanut Butter Pretzel Blizzard.

Mintel research found that 160 pretzel product debuted in 2012, up sharply from the 60 that appeared in 2009. Lynn Dornblaser with Mintel’s new products division, predicts the pretzel mania will trickle down to doggie treats soon. Dataessential research showed that pretzel bread has become the fast-growing sandwich bread, advancing 36% on sandwich menus from 2011 to 2012.