Diary of a Wedding Guest: Part 8 - A Bavarian Adventure

After leaving Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, we decided to find something to eat. Bronner's is located in Frankenmuth and we decided to see what restaurants were available in town. Frankenmuth is a tourist area that is built on the theme of a Bavarian village. While the town is much larger, the tourist area is about 3 - 4 blocks along the main drag through town. There are several specialty shops and a couple of really nice restaurants ($20 and up).

We found a parking spot and set out on foot to find our meal. Along the way we stopped in several of the specialty shops looking for some possibilities for Father's Day gifts. Frankenmuth has several candy stores in which they make the candy and fudge right in front of the customers. And like most other tourist places they had the usual deals - buy three slices (1/2 lb each) of fudge and get the fourth one free. Each slice of fudge is $6.50, and despite the various names, all the candy/fudge stores seem to actually be one in the same. If you checkout the website www.frankenmuth.org all of the links for the candy stores go to the same page. We did not get to go through the River Place shops, but we did check out Zak's Kandy Haus, the Bavarian Inn Castle Shops, Rau's Country Store, and Zehnder's Marketplace. There were many interesting things to see in the shops, but we refrained from buying anything, especially the chocolate for fear that it would melt in the heat. In several of the little shops, the employees wore traditional Barvarian outfits. Aside from the costumes, the building architecture and some of the dishes served at the restuarants, there was really nothing Bavarian about the place. The did not sell traditional German/Barvarian gifts. Most of the stuff was made in China, like everything everywhere else.

We ended up dining at Zehnder's Z-Chef's Cafe. This was a more affordable option than the more touristy restaurants and yet it had some of the same foods as the regular Zehnder's Restaurant. Lori and I ate for around $20 total including our drinks. We both had the fried chicken and brat combo meal which included a piece of fried chicken, a brat with kraut, two sides and a roll for about $8.50. The food was really good. I would recommend it to anyone. The chicken was not greasy. The breading was very light and had a hint of cornmeal taste to it. With this combo, you have your choice of brat - smoked or traditional. Lori got the smoked and I had the traditional. Both were very tasty. Zehnder's Z-Chef Cafe is on the side of Zehnder's and in the lower level. Well worth the price we paid. They also have salads, sandwiches, pizzas and deli style sides in addition to their hot plate cafeteria style dinners.

After dinner we headed back to the car and drove back to our hotel. It was a very pleasant afternoon visitng Bronner's and Frankenmuth and it is something that we will definitely do again, should we find ourselves in the area again.