Midwest Guest

Cherry Hut is kitcshy and delicious fun in Beulah, Michigan

Visiting The Cherry Hut in Beulah, Michigan, always makes me feel like I've entered some sort of time warp, dropping into a tasty 1950s kitsch fest where affordable family fun and fare was the order of the day.

The cherry-red-and-white color scheme, the vintage-style server uniforms, and the huge Cherry Jerry logo adorning the menu and grinning atop the restaurant's sign while overseeing a stretch of U.S. Highway 31 out front hasn't changed much in my memories of the place over the past 25 years or so.

The restaurant has its origins as a roadside pie stand opened in 1922 by James and Dorothy Kraker on Crystal Lake to distribute homemade pies made with cherries from their orchards.

The Krakers had several small Cherry Huts around the region during the 1920s and 1930s before consolidating them and opening the Cherry Hut's present-day Beulah location in 1937.

In 1946, a local high school sophomore named Leonard Case Jr. began working at the Cherry Hut in the jam kitchen. Case started working full-time at the restaurant in 1948, and with the exception of two years he spent in military service, remained on the job all these years. Case became a Cherry Hut manager by 1957, purchased the business in 1959, and the Case family still owns the Cherry Hut.

The Cherry Hut keeps traditional summer season hours, opening early in May and closing for the winter in mid-October, and much of their work force consists of high school and college students on summer break. The back of the menu proudly lists the staff by name and school affiliation, with the "girls" tending to be college students working as servers, while the "boys" tend to be high school kids working in the back of the house operation.

Cherry Hut fare tends to be the type of food you remember from childhood meals-chicken pot pie, turkey and dressing, Swiss steak, or chopped steak. Plenty of menu items like burgers, chicken salad, drinks, and desserts incorporate cherries, with the Cherry Hut using as many as 4,000 pounds of tart cherries in their food and products during a busy week.

The Cherry Hut particularly prides itself for its cherry pies. Leonard Case's wife Brenda told a National Public Radio interviewer the Cherry Hut uses the same recipe, and makes pies the same way with hand-crimped crusts, that the Krakers began using in 1922. The Cherry Hut sells as many as 500 cherry pies during the height of the busy summer season in July and August.

I especially enjoy going to the Cherry Hut for dessert and ordering a cherry sundae, vanilla ice cream with tart cherry sundae sauce. And I never seem to visit there without purchasing a couple of jars of the cherry sundae sauce from the restaurant's gift store to take home.

Prices at the Cherry Hut are affordable, and they seem to easily accommodate larger groups, making it a good choice for families or stopping off for a quick meal while you're traveling.

The Cherry Hut expanded over the years, but it seems to retain much of its vintage vibe and essential look. Check out the Cherry Hut Facebook page for great vintage photos of the business.

The Cherry Hut ships many of its jams, jellies and sauces, but repeated trials show that the pies don't seem to withstand the rigors of shipping, so you do have to visit in person to check out the cherry pie.

But those who love all things cherry will tell you that it's worth the trip!

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for July 2010

Here are a few interesting Midwest-related stories I've read online this past month:

• A Visit to Round Island Lighthouse-This little gem of a lighthouse near Michigan's Mackinac Island opens to the public one day each year, so is a special treat when Jennifer shared these photos of her recent visit to the lighthouse with her friend Bree on Bree's Mackinac Island Blog.

• The J.W. Wescott II mail boat-A boat with its own Zip Code? Read about it at Sweet Juniper as Jim writes about the Detroit River Post Office aboard the J.W. Wescott II, the only boat in the world dedicated expressly for mail delivery to vessels along the Detroit River.

• Cincinnati's Dramatic, Multi-Billion Dollar Riverfront Revitalization Nearly Complete-Urban planner Randy Simes details this Ohio city's riverfront $3 billion transformation from an aging industrial space into an exciting mixed-use district at the Urbanophile. We visited completed components of this revitalization like the Great American Ball Park and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center during our last visit to the city.





• Milwaukee, A Walker's Paradise-Andrew takes readers on a tour of walkable Milwaukee at Urban Out, checking out some downtown bars, eateries, shopping districts, and residential neighborhoods.

• Chicago's Grocery Store in the Sky-Wayne takes us to one of Chicago's most exclusive stores, a grocery store on the 44th floor of the John Hancock building called the Potash Gourmet 44. Visitors must pass a lobby security checkpoint, pass the 44th floor lobby receptionist, and be a building resident (or with a resident) to go shopping there. Or you can enjoy this virtual visit with Wayne.

• Wayne County Treasures: The Levi Coffin House-We learned a bit about Levi Coffin and his role in the Underground Railroad in Ohio when we visited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, so it was especially interesting to me to learn a bit more about his earlier days with the Underground Railroad in Indiana. Check this story by Andrea on the Indiana Insider Blog.

• Flint Portraits: Lloyd Copeman-Next time you fill up your glass with ice by flipping ice cubes out of your flexible ice cube tray, you can thank Flint-area inventor Lloyd Copeman. The flexible plastic ice cube tray earned this prolific inventor an astounding $500,000 during the late 1920s. Gordon writes about Copeman and his many inventions at Flint Expatriates.

• Jolly Green Giant Statue-Beth and her family visited the big green guy in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Read about their visit to this 55-foot-tall landmark and roadside attraction at The Vacation Gals blog.

• Two Miles an Hour-Did you ever wonder what it was like to cross the prairies in a covered wagon? Join Andrea at Horizontal Lines as she takes on a day-long trail ride in northwestern North Dakota to relive her immigrant ancestors' experiences as they settled into a new land.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Where I live: Driving hunger from metro Detroit at Forgotten Harvest's 2010 Champagne Cruise

Sip champagne for a serious cause and support Forgotten Harvest's effort to drive hunger from metro Detroit at the food rescue group's annual Champagne Cruise on August 20 at Westborn Market along Woodward Avenue in Berkley, Michigan.

I always look forward to this event, held the Friday evening before the official Saturday date of the massive Woodward Dream Cruise, which draws more than 40,000 vintage vehicles and as many as 1 million spectators to metro Detroit for a celebration of classic cars. Cruisers generally hit Woodward with their vintage vehicles on the warm weekends throughout much of the summer leading up to the official cruise date, with the action along the cruising strip reaching a peak as the Friday of the Champagne Cruise approaches. The Champagne Cruise's combination of timing, and its Woodward-side location, makes it one of the primo places to view some great cars while helping fund Forgotten Harvest's food rescue operation.

Forgotten Harvest rescued 19.4 million pounds of food otherwise destined for the trash and delivered it to emergency food providers to feed hungry metro Detroiters during Fiscal Year 2009-2010. Rescued food comes from donors like Champagne Cruise host Westborn Market and other donors like area grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, farmers, and wholesale food distributors.

What makes these numbers even more amazing to me is the fact that they represent a doubling of the numbers I saw last year, meaning that donors are digging even deeper into their pockets to help fellow metro Detroiters in an economy that continues to struggle.

But the Champagne Cruise is an evening of fun and good food for attendees.

Forgotten Harvest sets up a huge tent in the parking lot at Berkley’s Westborn Market. The market puts out an amazing array of cheeses and produce for guests to sample, while a handful of other area restaurants and caterers set up stations for a mini Taste Fest of some great metro Detroit eats.

And, yes, the Forgotten Harvest crew packs up the unused food at the end of the evening for distribution to area soup kitchens, food pantries, and shelters.

This year, Champagne Cruise attendees will again dance to the music of The Sun Messengers (the "Official Band of the Detroit Pistons") and hang out in a special viewing area that offers a ringside seat for the car cruising action along Woodward.

I've always admired Forgotten Harvest for its approach to addressing the dual problems of hunger and waste by rescuing perfectly good food from disposal and getting it into the hands, and stomachs, of those who need it most.

Forgotten Harvest's responsible stewardship of their donated money and goods is also impressive. The charity is justifiably proud of its record of spending 95-plus percent of its funds on food programming and less than 5 percent of its money on administrative or fund raising costs, earning an "exceptional" rating from Charity Navigator.

So, I don't feel badly about plopping down $150 per ticket to support the group and its mission.

For all the seriousness of Forgotten Harvest's mission, the Champagne Cruise definitely puts the "fun" in "fund raiser".

I wouldn't miss it!

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Where I live: Opa! Fest celebrates Greek music, dance, food, and culture in Troy, Michigan

We have so much fun each year at Opa! Fest because the annual event at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Troy, Michigan, truly feels like a celebration.

Greek music, dancing, culture, and food (oh! the food!) is again on the menu June 25-27 at Opa! Fest on the St. Nicholas grounds, and it's definitely a party worth attending.

The festival, now in its 17th year and the largest ongoing Greek festival in metro Detroit, has many of the things you'd expect to find at a church fund raiser, like kids' games, raffles, food and beer tents.

If you love Greek food and baked goods, you absolutely need to get the Opa! Fest early in the day as some of the most popular selections are gone by early afternoon.

You can get a hand stamp that will get you back into the festival, so you can get your food fix, take your pastry purchases home, and return later in the evening to enjoy some Greek beer or Ouzo while watching the entertainment.

Last year, we had an early lunch of hot and cold dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves), sausage, spinach pie, feta cheese, and kalamata olives.

Then it was off to the bakery counter to buy some pastries and crusty bread to take home--all baked by what appears to be an army of elderly Greek ladies and their helpers. Sure, you can get baklava, brownies, or chocolate chip cookies, but there are so many more options!

I had little clue how pastries with names like thiples, galatobouriko, karithopita, kataifi, koulouria, kourambiedes, melomacarona, paximadia, tiropita, or tsoureki might taste. When I asked for suggestions, a young lady behind the counter hastened to help me--and when a kid behind a cookie counter enthusiastically says "these are my favorites", I pay attention. She helped me make some great choices!

The entertainment each day generally starts with performances by the youngest Greek dance groups, followed by progressively older dancers and ending in the evenings with the most skilled teen and adult dance groups.

I enjoy seeing the dancers' traditional costumes, and the church often has a display of some of the more intricate costumes.

Want to learn some Greek dancing? Be sure to check out the dance lessons on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Opa! Fest usually schedules plenty of local talent to entertain the crowds, but organizers occasionally book a bigger name act.

Three years ago, Opa! Fest featured sixth-place finalist from the fourth season of American Idol and Tony-award nominee, Constantine Maroulis, and the internationally known Pavlo, the Toronto-based "Greek God of Guitar" played last year.

While both of those acts drew big crowds, it's the food, dance, and fun most folks seem to come for at Opa! Fest each year. The festival drew 11,000 people in 2008, with an entertainment bill of local talent.

Enigma, a seven-piece Detroit-area band featuring a mix traditional Greek music and contemporary Greek music like Laika (Greek pop music), performs throughout all three days of the festival this year.

While much of the action takes place outside, there are cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, and a marketplace inside.

Drop a couple of dollars into the tin-can raffle boxes to take a chance on winning a big basket full of gifts. I was lucky enough to win a basket full of Greek food products one year.

St. Nicholas is a beautiful church, so you should make sure you visit the sanctuary for a look at the unique architecture and religious art or to just catch a few moments of quiet time during the festival.

Admission is $2 (children under 12 get in free). You can donate three cans of food for Gleaners in lieu of the admission charge.

Parking is free at nearby Walsh College, and there is limited handicapped parking only at the church. The church provides free, continuous shuttle service between the college and the church, and we've never had to wait more than a few minutes for a ride.

 

Note: "Where I live" posts are part of a series of periodic stories about special events and people in, and around, metro Detroit. "Where I live" posts are stories I'll post in addition to my regular schedule of stories about attractions around the larger Midwestern region. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Where I live: Get ready for the Berkley Art Bash, one of metro Detroit's great summer street parties

Get ready for another great Berkley Art Bash, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 12, as local musicians and artists hit Twelve Mile to celebrate at one of metro Detroit's great summer street parties.

This festival, now in its ninth year, showcases local talent and businesses as a stretch of 12 Mile through the heart of Berkley's downtown area closes to traffic and becomes a great pedestrian mall for the day where visitors can shop, listen to some tunes, grab a snack, and the kids can try out the inflatable slide or sell their own artwork in a special student mart.

The art fair features the work of more than 90 artists, with many of them offering hand-crafted items at very reasonable prices.

I'm a big fan of wind chimes, and I especially loved these chimes created from discarded flatware that I found at last year's Berkley Art Bash (not only beautiful, but eco-friendly as well!). One set went home with me, and hangs on my front porch, and I bought a second set as a birthday gift for my mother.

The music is another highlight of the Berkley Art Bash for me, and this year the bill looks every bit as intriguing as last year's Art Bash shows (which included the bluesy Flint, Michigan-based Cidy Zoo, pictured here).

Brazil & Beyond, winners of "Outstanding World Music Recording" Detroit Music Awards in 2004 and 2006 for albums featuring, respectively, imaginative Brazilian-flavored versions of Beatles tunes and classical compositions kick things off at 11 a.m. this year.

The blues, rock, and funky soul-fueled Motor Honey, who, according to their My Space page, get their audiences dancing with an eclectic playlist that can include The Pretenders, Living Color, The Doors, or Diana Ross hit the stage at 1 p.m.

Royal Oak's Maggie McCabe fronts Maggie's Farm to round out the day's music with some great acoustic blues and folk at 3:30 p.m.

Berkley Art Bash director April McCrumb, owner of Berkley's Catching Fireflies whimsical gifts store, always impressed me with her command of social media and online outlets to promote her own business, as well as the Art Bash. This year, the festival has its own Facebook page where you can get a sneak peek at some of the artists' work, check out video clips from the performing bands, and catch any other late-breaking Art Bash news.

The Berkley Chamber of Commerce presents the Art Bash with help from several corporate sponsors.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to some fresh-squeezed lemonade, some shopping, some great music, and wondering if the fire truck housing the hot dog stand will be there again this year!

   

Note: "Where I live" posts are part of a series of periodic stories about special events and people in, and around, metro Detroit. "Where I live" posts are stories I'll post in addition to my regular schedule of stories about attractions around the larger Midwestern region. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for May 2010

Check out these interesting blog posts about the Midwest I've found online in the past month.

• Honey Bee Market La Colmena, Est. 1956-Who says there are no great grocery stores in Detroit? I loved this great feature about a third-generation, family-owned market in the city of Detroit by self-avowed "Gentleman of Elegant Leisure" Jim at Sweet Jupiter.

• Street Artist Banksy Tags Detroit-Detroit Moxie's Becks managed to catch the work of internationally known street artist, Banksy, at a couple of Detroit sites (in one case just hours before it disappeared from a brick wall). The removal of Banksy's work ignited a great deal of discussion in the city, and the comments on this blog offer a bit of that discussion.

• Heidelberg Project: Art Calling-Kath checks out this Detroit landmark at the Great Lakes Gazette. Is it art? Innovative reuse of discards? A political statement of some sort? Take a look and decide for yourself!

• A Fascinating Neighborhood-Charlie takes us to Detroit's Creekside Neighborhood at his blog, Bikes, Books & a Little Music. This serene oasis in the big city with its lighthouse, beautiful riverside homes, and parks draws plenty of fishers, bicyclists, families, and others wanting to enjoy the view of Detroit's downtown skyline in the distance.

• River Water & Wine in Grafton, Illinois-Perceptive Travel's Tim turns a planned bicycle ride derailed by heavy rain into a wine tasting tour and a chance to check out the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.

• Oliver Winery Fits in Bloomington with a bit of Everything-Join Marcia at Wine and Spirits Travel as she visits Indiana's largest winery and its Creekbend Vineyard.





• A Weekend in Chicago with Kids-Carrie finds plenty of family-friendly fun in Chicago. Check out some of her family's favorite things to do and see in Chicago at Travel Savvy Mom.

• The Historic Westin Columbus-The Smiths, a Kentucky family of five, write about their visit to the oldest Westin Hotel in North America in Columbus, Ohio. Check out the great architectural details like marble floors, ornate woodwork, and original stained glass in this vintage 1897 building.

• Southwest Michigan Offers Great Parks-Tina lists some of her favorite parks in this corner of the state for the Pure Michigan blog. Dunes, beaches, camping, bicycle trails, wildlife sanctuaries-they're all here!

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

History and olives on the menu at Michigan's Halo Burger

Having a burger "my way" means I want my burger garnished with a generous helping of sliced olives, and the Flint, Michigan, based Halo Burger is one of the few places where I know I can get olive burgers.

I don't remember when I first discovered Halo Burgers, but once I tried one of their olive-laden burgers, I was hooked. I even keep a jar of salad olives on hand at home so I can make my own olive burgers as heading to Halo Burger in Flint or Birch Run entails about an hour's drive for us.

It funny because I'm not that big of a fast-food burger fan. If I stop by a burger joint more than about twice a year, that's a lot for me. Still, when we found ourselves on I-75 near Birch Run recently, I made a special point to stop for an olive burger at the local Halo Burger.

Halo Burger looks like any number of other fast food joints, but I especially like the fact that it is a small local chain that traces its history back to 1923.

A man named Sam Blair opened the Kewpee Hotel in downtown Flint, Michigan, during 1923 and sold burgers from a boxcar-type wagon near his hotel. His "Kewpee burgers" with a flat-bottom bun and garnished with mayo, lettuce, tomato, and olives became very popular, and live on as Halo Burgers today.

Bill Thomas began working for Blair in 1938 and eventually ended up purchasing the business from Blair's estate in 1958. Someone else owned the "Kewpee" name, so Thomas renamed his hamburger biz to Bill Thomas' Halo Burger.

The Halo Burger menu may look like a typical burger joint menu, but the ability to add items like olives, bacon, or banana peppers to your burger and chasing it down with a thick shake or Boston Cooler (a vanilla ice cream and Vernor's ginger ale concoction developed in Detroit hand having nothing to do with Boston and everything to do with Vernor's here) makes it a great road food meal with a little local flavor.

We had the black raspberry shake that was the month's special the last time we visited Halo Burger. Again, I'm not a big fast-food shake person, but I loved this shake that tasted like fresh, thick, soft-serve ice cream.

If you visit the Web site, be sure to check out the gallery of photos on the Media page that follow Halo's history from the 1920s to present day.

Halo Burger has a handful of locations, with about a half-dozen outlets in the city of Flint. The Birch Run Halo Burger is particularly convenient for a quick road food fix as it is right off of I-75, a major north-south expressway in Michigan, and just across the highway from a major outlet shopping mall.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Birch Run

Cheese Haus Maus and Kern's Sausages: Frankenmuth, Michigan, landmarks

I prefer to buy something local to the area where I'm traveling and something that won't take up too much room in my luggage or already overstuffed house, so some local cheese and a stick of spicy summer sausage were the perfect souvenirs of our short trip to Frankenmuth.

While most Frankenmuth visitors know about the massive Bronner's Christmas store and mega all-you-can-eat chicken dinner restaurants, the Cheese Haus maus is another hard-to-miss sight right in the heart of Frankenmuth's downtown.

I always remember that huge mouse perched on the big wedge of cheese along Main Street, so it comes as no surprise to me that to learn that the business has deep roots in the town.

Frankenmuth's Hubinger family was the first to open businesses in the small town in the mid-1840s with holdings including a mill, a cheese factory, and a grocery store. The family sold their store to Tiny Zehnder in the 1950s, and he established the Cheese Haus during that decade according to a speaker recently hosted by the town's Lions Club.

The big mouse is enough of a landmark that it is a location at Waymarking.com (waymarking is similar to geocaching, except there is no physical cache involved).

But what about the cheese?

One of the store's claims to fame is its house-made chocolate cheeses. These taste a bit like a little-less-than-sweet fudge, and although I'm more interested in cheese that tastes like cheese, I imagine the chocolate cheeses might appeal to chocolate lovers looking for a little something different.

We opted instead for a few small bricks of Michigan-made cheeses like the Frankenmuth Sharp and a mild havarti cheese flecked with bits of peppadew. We also bought a tub of a cheese/cream cheese mix called Father Bolger's blend from St. John's, Michigan, named for a priest who originally developed the mix to make as Christmas gifts for family and friends.

If you absolutely need a boot-shaped beer glass, funny German hat, or postcards, you can find those sorts of souvenirs at the rear of the store.

But I like my cheesy souvenirs to be real, well, cheese!

There is a little patio area beside the store where you can enjoy your cheese snack on a warm day or gather the kids for the obligatory Cheese Haus Maus photo.

Kern's Sausages is just a little down the street from the Cheese Haus and is also a great place to shop for a little local flavor.

This family owned business recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, and a third generation of the Kern family continues to make and sell more than thirty house-made Bavarian-style sausages at the store.

Kern's has a small selection of grocery items and many imported German specialty items in addition to its extensive sausage selection.

Tim is a summer sausage fan, and we'd heard that Kern's house-made variety was quite tasty. We took some home with us and found it to be very good and nicely spicy.

It's also fun to browse around the Kern's website to see how they make their sausages and other German specialties like Springerle cookies or brat buns. Kern's also has a Facebook page, which is worth checking out for information about local events or for store coupons.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Frankenmuth

Enjoy a quick respite at Bavarian Inn Lodge

The Bavarian Inn Lodge in Frankenmuth, Michigan, looks like a great resort for families, and while we're more bed & breakfast or country inn types, we found the resort also worked nicely for a quick and quiet mid-week getaway during the off season.

We've visited Frankenmuth often for day trips over the years. The quaint German themed town is a little over an hour from home for us, and attractions like Bronner's massive year round Christmas store make it a fun trip for those seeking a little cool relief on hot summer days.

But as many times as I'd visited Bronner's and downtown Frankenmuth over the years, I'd never stayed there overnight.

We remedied that situation earlier this month when we found we could get out of town for a quick, quick trip and needed to go somewhere within an hour or two from home.

We arrived at the Bavarian Inn Lodge on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, approaching the massive motel along a lane leading through a covered bridge spanning the Cass River. The quiet approach almost made you forget you were going to a 7-acre resort that included a 360-room lodge, 5 indoor pools, a couple of restaurants and lounges, shops, and recreation options like an indoor mini golf course, outdoor tennis courts, tons of video games and other amusements.  

Arriving when we did meant we were able to snag a room overlooking the river, and the serene view made it possible to forget you were in a big resort campus with a fantasy Bavarian architectural theme.

Frankenmuth has an interesting history as a town settled by a small group of German families in the mid-1840s. I enjoyed the fact that the lodge honored the town's ties to those original settlers and their descendants by naming each room for early settlers, other families with deep roots in the community, or those who significantly contributed to the area's growth and development.

Our room was the Veitengruber room, named for Johann Michael and Anna Marie Veitengruber, and their six grown children, who originally arrived in Frankenmuth in 1846. The room's decor included plaques tracing the history of the family through eight generations, plus a gallery of Veitengruber family photos and records like a church confirmation document (in German) and an attendance award for another family member from the Frankenmuth village school district during the early 1900s.

Other lodge features we especially appreciated included a free and strong Wi-Fi signal we were both able to access at the same time in our room with no hassle, an in-room refrigerator, and the adult-only pool.

The adult-only pool alone makes the lodge worth considering for a future visit. I've been at resorts in the past where a single indoor pool served all of the guests and the staff there didn't enforce the late-night adult-only posted swim times, making it a special misery if you happened to book a poolside room. The Bavarian Inn's multiple pools spread throughout the complex make it pleasant for everyone.

We were a bit disappointed that the Lorelei Lounge wasn't open the night we were there, but we were still able to get a late snack and a beer in the cafeteria-style Ratskeller (although its location in the Family Fun Center with its sea of video games probably wouldn't make the Ratskeller our first choice on a busy summer night). Tim, a root beer fan, tried the Bavarian Inn's lodge's own branded root beer and liked it.

We also appreciated being able to take a short walk through the lodge to Oma's Restaurant for breakfast the next morning. If you go, make sure you try a side of the potato cheese dumplings with your meal.

 

No trip to Frankenmuth, of course, is complete without an all-you-can-eat chicken dinner or visit to Bronner's Christmas store. Read more about our Frankenmuth experiences in my earlier stories, Frankenmuth's Bavarian Inn serves up chicken, German beer and nostalgia in Michigan and Bronner's keeps the lights on for Santa in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

 

Want to learn more about Frankenmuth's history? Check out Frankenmuth (Image of America) by the Frankenmuth Historical Association.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Hotel Review
Frankenmuth

Frankenmuth's Bavarian Inn serves up chicken, German beer and nostalgia in Michigan

Taking a trek with the family to Frankenmuth, Michigan, for a family-style chicken dinner is something we did at least once every several years when I was growing up.

We recently picked a rainy weekday to for a nostalgic revisit to the area to check out the chicken and soak up a little of the Bavarian-style cutesy-kitsch that is so quintessentially Frankenmuth.

Michigan's "Little Bavaria" owes its identity to its beginnings as a community of German immigrants seeking good farm land and escape from political unrest in their home country in the mid-1840s.

The Zehnder family emigrated from Germany in 1846, and today, two branches of the family own restaurants that sit directly across the street from each other and specialize in similar all-you-can-eat, family-style chicken dinners.

Zehnder's of Frankenmuth lays claim to being "America's Largest Family Owned Restaurant" with ten dining rooms that can seat more than 1,500 diners. Zehnder's history dates back to an inn called the Exchange Hotel, built in 1856. William Zehnder purchased the Exchange, well known early on for its chicken dinners, in 1927. The Exchange had been vacant for four years when Zehnder acquired it, and he set about an ambitious remodeling to create a building resembling President George Washington's Mount Vernon home. He opened in 1928 and immediately began serving family-style chicken dinners again to hungry diners.

William (Tiny) Zehnder, Jr. and his wife Dorothy purchased a restaurant across the street from Zehnder's in 1950. The Michigan historical marker in front of this restaurant, now the Bavarian Inn, tells me that Theodore Fischer, a former bartender at the Exchange Hotel, established an inn at the site in 1888. Fischer's family reportedly began the tradition of all-you-can-eat family-style chicken dinners at the inn, something that Tiny and Dorothy Zehnder continued when they purchased Fischer's inn.

Tiny and Dorothy Zehnder visited Bavaria with their family in the late 1950s, which led them to remodel their restaurant into a fairy-tale Bavarian style.

The Bavarian Inn lays claim to being one of the ten largest restaurants in the United States, at least according to the historical marker out front. The marker goes on to say that a record of 5,470 meals were served on October 9, 1982, and over 20 million meals were served at the inn between its opening as Fischer's place in 1888 until 1988.

With both inns claiming titles as large and popular dining destinations, and the town itself usually listed among Michigan's top tourist attractions, scooting up there for dinner on a quiet weekday in spring meant we didn't have to wait in a long line for our meal or contend with a crowded and noisy dining room.

We opted for the more fantasy-themed Bavarian Inn for an all-we-could-eat late lunch/early dinner during our most recent visit.

The chicken is decent fried chicken, but the accompaniments really made the meal for us. My favorites included the chicken noodle soup (chock full of skinny little noodles), dressing, buttered German-style egg noodles, squash, and the crisp tart-yet-sweet cranberry relish. Homemade ice cream finished the meal, and I also loved the cranberry ice cream featured that month (a cranberry soft-serve with a hint of vanilla).

The menu also boasts an extensive German beer selection, and a draft Hofbräu was the perfect thing for me to have with my chicken dinner.

One of the biggest attractions at the Bavarian Inn for me is the fifty-foot-high Glockenspiel tower with a 35-bell carillon. The bell tower merits a full page at the Bavarian Inn's site, which tells about the history of the structure and significance of its tunes and figures.

The bells regularly chime the 5-bell Westminster chime every quarter hour, and I can remember seeing the extended glockenspiel program of other songs and a revolving set of German figurines depicting the not-so-cheery tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln. The piper, who managed to rid the German town of Hameln of the rats plaguing it during the 13th century, entranced the town's children with his tunes and led them away forever after the townspeople cheated him of the fee they agreed to pay for his rat removal (I said it was a less than cheery tale!).

During our most recent visit, even though we happened to be in the parking lot at the appointed hour for the four-times-a-day show, the figures remained behind closed doors. Perhaps they didn't want to get wet, as it was raining fairly hard at the time.

Still, we had a great time revisiting this favorite childhood destination of mine!

Want to learn more about Frankenmuth's history? Check out Frankenmuth (Image of America) by the Frankenmuth Historical Association.

Check out the story Bronner's keeps the lights on for Santa in Frankenmuth, Michigan here at Midwest Guest to learn how one Frankenmuth business keeps the spirit of Christmas alive year round.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Frankenmuth