s is a large restaurant in frankenmuth michigan . it has seating for 1 500 people and features all you can eat family style chicken dinners seafood steaks fresh baked goods and european desserts . every year zehnder s serves almost a million people . 1 in the 1980s it was one of the ten largest restaurants in the united states . 2 contents 1 food 2 history 3 references 4 external links food edit the food is generally american or midwestern style food served family style . the restaurant is known for its all you can eat chicken dinners a tradition that began before the zehnder family acquired it . 2 history edit zehnder s in spring 2011 the bavarian inn restaurant also owned by the zehnder family zehnder s was originally built as the exchange hotel by henry reichle in 1856 . reichle ran the hotel for twenty years after which it was sold and operated by several different people . in 1927 william zehnder sr. purchased the hotel remodeling the building including redesigning the front of the building to look like mount vernon . after world war ii the business grew rapidly . 3 in march 1947 the business was turned over to zehnder s children . the business became a corporation and in the 1950s the zehnder s bought fischer s hotel located across the street renaming it the bavarian inn . in 1955 william zehnder jr. manager of the bavarian inn and edwin zehnder manager of zehnder s restaurant purchased the interests of zehnder s inc. from their brothers and sister . 1 they re decorated the restaurant in a bavarian theme after visiting bavaria on vacation and the annual frankenmuth bavarian festival began during their week long grand re opening celebration . 2 in 1984 zehnder s and the bavarian inn became separate corporations with friendly competition between relatives . john zehnder the executive chef and food and beverage manager at zehnder s received the 2011 hermann g. rusch chef s achievement award from the american culinary federation . 4 in 2007 zehnder s ranked as the eighth largest restaurant in the united states based on total sales with a total annual patronage of approximately a million people . 5 references edit a b zehnders website . 2008 . retrieved 2008 09 29 . a b c ashlee laura r. 2005 . traveling through time a guide to michigan s historical markers . ann arbor mich university of michigan press . p. 382 . isbn 0 472 03066 3 . lanoue mike 1987 . centennial business portraits of michigan a collection of michigan s oldest businesses with written histories and art by albion cards . albion cards . p. 13 . lalonde pati 8 august 2011 . john zehnder receives the chef s achievement award from american culinary federation . saginaw news . burcar colleen 2007 . michigan curiosities quirky characters roadside oddities & other offbeat stuff . guilford connecticut insiders guide . p. 62 . isbn 978 0 7627 4111 3 . external links edit official website coordinates 43 19 37 n 83 44 27 w 43.32694 n 83.74083 w 43.32694 ; 83.74083 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title zehnder % 27s & oldid 744166822 categories restaurants in michiganhotels established in 1856restaurants established in 18561856 establishments in michiganbuildings and structures in saginaw county michiganvisitor attractions in saginaw county michiganhidden categories coordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 14 35 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view