Every all-you-can- eat dinner here draws from the Thanksgiving menu: creamy mashed potatoes, golden swirls of buttered egg noodles, army-green forests of thoroughly cooked broccoli and cranberry sauce.
This city in Central Michigan has a reputation for its family-style chicken dinners, which are served the same way as they were in 1937.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
Chickens are boiled whole, left to chill, then cut into 10 parts that are lightly fried, and the meat is hot and juicy. This Thursday is expected to be the busiest day of the year for the two restaurants that face each other across South Main Street: the Bavarian Inn and the Zehnder's of Frankenmuth. The four-day holiday weekend will see nearly 30,000 diners.
The founder of the Bavarian Inn, who will turn 100 on December 1, said it was the food that mattered. Thanksgiving and Christmas are family days, and they get good food.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
They get nostalgia by the acres, which is served up with gusto by Lawrence Welk. Like those who travel to Solvang, Calif., or Leavenworth, Wash., visitors to Frankenmuth experience a similar experience, filled with polka music, wine tastings, and water slides.
The Fraktur lettering can be seen everywhere in the city, as well as in the hotel rooms named for founding families. The front of the post office has cutouts of Hummel figurines mailing porcelain letters straight to a visitor's heart.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
A person named Bronner's.
Christmas.
There is a place called "Wonderland."
By The New York Times.
Hopes are high this year. The border with Canada has opened to Canadian visitors, who used to make up a large portion of the out-of-town guests. The dining rooms were dark last Thanksgiving. The only other option was to take out, with only a small fraction of the staff running the show.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
The chief executive of the company said that it was like telling a car dealer that they couldn't sell cars but they could do oil changes.
Mention Frankenmuth to a Michigander and she will be quick to point out whether she comes from a family of loyalists or fans of the Bavarian Inn. The facades of the two restaurants are different. If George Washington advertised with neon, it would look like Mount Vernon. The Inn has a feel of being in the hills.
dirndls or lederhosen are worn by the server at the Bavarian Inn. Women in white aprons and men in banded-collared shirts with underwear are at the restaurant.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
The image is.
Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
Linda Lee, an honoree of the Polka Hall of Fame, will perform at the opening of the Bavarian Inn, which will feature garlic toasts and orbs of spreadable cheese and pté. Mrs. Zehnder said that they have more German food than American.
The all-you-can- eat menu is the same. Chicken noodle soup and stollen slices the size of sandwich bread are offered by both restaurants. Both end their meals with ice cream. The dessert is topped with a translucent plastic animal at the restaurant called a Zoo Pick. A boy or girl dressed in Alpine clothing is picked at the Bavarian Inn.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
The image is.
Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
Mr. Zehnder once thought of getting rid of the Zoo Picks and saving a few bucks. People howled. He said that the guests' expectation was singular and that they had to get them back.
There is more. Beneath each restaurant is an underground warren of shops selling toys, collectibles, cookware and Frankenmuth favorites like fresh butterhorns, sweet rolls that will survive a long car ride home. Guests are entertained while they wait for a table.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
Wayne Bronner, the chief executive of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, said that they live in a town like Ozzie and Harriet. I explain that to the younger people, and they ask who they are.
The story of how this predominantly German American city in the Saginaw Valley became a destination for satiation is a saga worthy of a James Michener novel, complete with religious fervor, tinsel, beer and a family dynasty that is synonymous with the chicken dinner.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
It is easy to miss the other group at the beginning of the story with the city focusing on German heritage.
The hunting grounds of the Chippewa used to be on this stretch of farmland. The Treaty of Saginaw stripped six million acres from the three Black River Bands in Michigan, but subsequent treaties put some of the land in a trust, which was supposed to benefit Native Americans.
August Craemer, a Lutheran, came to the US with the purpose of converting Native Americans to Christianity. In 1845, the group bought a lot of land from the government for $1,700, which is about $62,000 today.
The first group of Zehnders, including the one with the second group of German Lutherans, arrived in Frankenmuth the following year. In the first few years, he ran a missionary school and taught religious doctrine in German to a few dozen children.
According to the 2020 census, fewer than 20 of the 5,000 residents in the town identify as Native American. There is a marker in the city's Memorial Park that states that the city has a connection to the Chippewa.
Frank Cloutier, the public relations director for the tribe, wrote in an email that the tribe celebrates all others who take the time to remember where they came from and maintain their connections to old traditions and celebrations. Pilgrims from Europe were invited to break bread with the aboriginal natives during the fall harvest celebrations in the 1600s. As they shared their culture, we still do today.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
The Gemtlichkeit, or the culture of hospitality, dates back to the late 19th century, when hotels and a brewery nourished travelers. Most travelers stopped for a chicken dinner at the hotel on Main Street that William Zehnder bought in 1928.
The first restaurant in the family was opened on Mother's Day in 1929, when the hotel was renovated to look like Mount Vernon, which William was an ardent fan of. It was a bad time to start a business, Al Zehnder said.
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The Frankenmuth Historical Association has credit.
The beer continued to flow, so visitors continued to stop. The code word was a kettle of tea. Federal agents destroyed both bars after the government levied heavy fines against the Zehnders.
After World War II, a sign painter named Wally Bronner opened his first Christmas store in the area, adding a touch of Christmas cheer to the area.
Wayne Bronner said that red shiny ornaments were the top seller. 75 people are employed by Christmas Wonderland, a tenth of its usual staff, to paint customers' names on ornaments. The store is about 100,000 square feet and sells everything from velvet Santa suits to job-specific baubles. Lawyers never lose their appeal. Plumbers go with the flow.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
The restaurant was owned by the Zehnder family. Mrs. Zehnder and her husband are called William and Mrs. He was a small baby when he built an addition in 1959 that was designed by an architect who agreed to work on the project only if he could do it in a German style.
The day we opened, business boomed. We went German after it flourished. We had to.
The town elders were persuaded by Tiny Zehnder to weave the Old World theme throughout the city. There is a blue-and-white diamond pattern on Main Street.
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The Bavarian Inn was in 1973.
The second generation split the enterprise into two entities in the 1980s to pursue different business interests. Al and his sisters, Martha and Susan, and their families run a restaurant and a golf course, as well as the Bavarian Inn and a shopping center. There is a bakery and a hotel with a water park.
In 2020, the James Beard Foundation honored the family-run restaurant as one of its America's Classics.
The focus has been to create a four-season family vacation destination. The focus on family has not changed since the founding.
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Nic Antaya was a writer for The New York Times.
The Murins of Irwin, Pa., have been planning their Thanksgiving trip since the summer. Emily Murin and her husband, Jonathan, love the Christmas season and wanted to take their daughters on a holiday trip in their new camper trailer.
The drive to Michigan would be on flatter terrain in Tennessee. They plan to arrive on Wednesday, eat Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, shop at Bronner's on Friday, and then go to Splash Village on Saturday before heading home.
Ms. Murin asked the Facebook groups where to eat.
I posted on the local groups to ask which one I should go to. Who is the winner? She said that it was a very, very dead heat. It came down to time.
The style of dining at the Bavarian Inn has not changed much since Mrs. Zehnder began her career as a waitress in 1937.
Some diners are not bound by tradition. "You would be surprised by how many steaks we serve on Thanksgiving," Mrs. Zehnder said.
Butterhorns are a recipe.
