Zehnder's of Frankenmuth: Tradition and Common Sense: Interview with Made to Measure Magazine

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Spending time at Zehnder’s is like walking into a Hallmark card: There is no other way to explain it.  We are talking about America’s largest family restaurant, and second largest independently owned.  It also sports a

152-room hotel with a 20,000 square foot video arcade, a championship

18-hole golf course and country-club, a four-story 30,000 square foot water park, and a good-sized retail food/bakery/boutique outlet.  This single campus is located in Frankenmuth, Michigan, in the Saginaw Valley between the cities of Flint and Saginaw, northwest of Detroit.

Zehnder’s was originally a hotel that was built in 1856, used as a stop-over for farmers who wanted a friendly fried chicken meal, hay and water for their horses, and a place to bed down; all for the nifty fare of $.75 a night.  It passed from owner to owner over the years, and was eventually purchased by William and Emilie Zehnder in 1927, who eliminated the hotel, and turned it into a restaurant, instead.  Zehnder’s opened on Mother’s Day, 1928, (still their biggest holiday).  They completely remodeled the place, and being German Lutheran immigrants who recognized their great fortune to have been Americans, decided that the new establishment would resemble the Colonial styled residence of Mt. Vernon, President George Washington’s pastoral home in Virginia.  It looks much the same, today.

As with most family concerns, William ran the hotel, and Emilie cooked the food—for the most part, her recipes are still used. They had eight children, and in one way or another, every son or daughter was put to work to keep the family business alive.  The brothers and sisters remained close as relatives, as well as being smart, savvy business colleagues. 

During the Depression, they struggled desperately, and report that their lowest day was in the 1930’s, when they sold a single seven-cent Speckled Sport cigar.  That’s a far cry from today’s receipts, with the multiple dining rooms serving as many as 5,916 guests in one day; at approximately $20 a person, that’s good business! 

The Saginaw Valley community came about in 1845, when an influx of the German immigrants migrated to the area.  What was then about 3,000 folks, grew to approximately 5,000, and it hasn’t changed much over the last 163 years.  The growth of the automotive industry as a result of the presence of an interstate in the ‘50’s, caused heavier population and changes in demography.  However, the surroundings of Frankenmuth are basically farming community and small towns where everybody knows everybody, and their ways of thinking.  The church unites one another with family values that are very traditional and conservative in perspective, thriving in the midst of a closely knit and caring group of people.  The old-fashioned tried and true Protestant Ethic—hard work—is the core for everyone, every day.  Zehnder’s is a paradigm.

Edwin, son of William, eventually took over Zehnder’s, itself.  However, don’t forget that one sister ran the gift shop, a brother was the postmaster of the town, one a minister with a son who is now the head chef of the restaurant, one a professor of hospitality management, and Uncle

William, Jr., who ran the Austrian restaurant across the street.  Now, in the third generation of ownership, (all of whom are in their 50’s,) Edwin’s four children run Zehnder’s; they work together and they vacation together, celebrating the holidays on their own time before their customers’, so dedicated are their lives to family and opportunity.  “We are grateful to have what we do,” says Susan Zehnder, vice president of Human Resources.  “We think of ourselves as being very fortunate.” 

Everyone cooks, serves, bakes, you-name-it.  And the best part?  Even the farmers in the surrounding area supply the chickens, the vegetables, and grain for the breads.  For the purposes of dietary accommodations for the customers, as well as serving fresh homegrown items, very little processed food is served.  “The secret,” confesses Susan, “comes from Dad.  He always said that no one works for him—everyone works with him.”

There are over 700 employees affiliated with the Zehnder’s corporation, some workers marking 35 or 50 year anniversaries.  Every aspect is overseen and neatly divided by job description in tune with specific areas of activity.  The basic philosophy of uniforms, the same as with the restaurant, is the simple, down-to-earth system that has kept the company running for so many years.  “Guests, like everyone else, judge a book by its cover,” philosophizes Susan, in Trumanesque plainness.  The garments are mostly utilitarian with an eye for cost and beyond that, they are quite straightforward. 

The employees themselves, coming from the surrounding rural areas are quite like-minded, so that the down-home atmosphere of the restaurant spills over from them, as well.  The most that’s spent on want-ads for hiring new people is $600 per year.  Everyone else is either family or a referral.  Folks don’t fight because there’s little to fight about; they’re too busy working to earn a day’s living, rather than frittering away time with arguments.  Trust runs high, and friends respect friends.  The garments that they wear are reflective of themselves, and they are practical for job service.    

“Our company goal is that everyone leaves satisfied,” reports Susan.  “Customer service is number one.  We want to be the number one choice for our guests, our employees, as leaders in our local community, region, state, and nationally, where we work very hard to be good citizens.” 

There are four areas for uniform wear: The restaurant, itself, which capitalizes on its Williamsburg styled Colonial architecture, surroundings, costumes, and fried chicken dinners with all the fixin’s; the retail outlet that merchandises homemade bakery goods, foods, and a few doo-dads; the lodge with the adjoining water park; and the golf course with its club house.  It’s all at once different, and yet the same.  Here’s how:

The restaurant is really the only place where there are unique costumes.  The design, instituted in the 1960’s, is very simple, and with low-key colors in brown’s and beiges with black and white accents.  There are the servers’ ankle length plaid Colonial dresses with white eyelet lace pinafore aprons.  Mop caps and puffed sleeves with pleats and velvet ribbons accentuate.  The fellows wear large white peasant shirts and black knickers.  Hostesses dress in black street length dresses with impressive eyelet pinafore collars.  The bartenders wear vests, slacks, and ties.  When it comes to “fancy wear,” that’s it for the entire expanse of property.  Everything else is strictly comfort, practicality, and job-description oriented.

The retail area is outfitted in black cobbler aprons.  Period.  No muss, no fuss.  They’re worn over an employee’s basic dress, and serve to identify and to keep the individual clean. 

Once a year, an employee is given a free uniform from Zehnder’s, itself.  If an employee wants additional garments, he must purchase them.  This is throughout the establishment. 

The hotel is about khaki pants and polo shirts.  Certainly, there are white chef coats for the kitchens, and black or black & white checkered chef pants, which are everywhere on campus.  But the hotel as well as the golf club, maintenance, and everyone else, is dressed in the khaki pants and polo shirts.  If the heath department requires a hat, then it’s a black baseball cap.

The polos are color-coded by job description: E.G., royal for Splash Village water park dining room; red for the water park, itself; white for the front desk and professional staff; burgundy for the maintenance people, etc.  Susan chooses the colors, and with her assistant and various managers of particular areas, the uniforms are kept in perfect condition.

The state of Michigan mandates that everyone must be fitted into a uniform, no matter individual needs, so certain items in the Zehnder’s line have to be custom-made to accommodate people who are particularly large or small.  “Weight is a protected class,” Susan cites, “so ‘buying off the rack’ is impossible.”  She tries to work with as few vendors as possible to narrow the multiple efforts for fitting and purchasing uniforms.  Before each uniform article is purchased, the item is tested by employees for fabric, durability, quality, laundry, stain-resistance, comfort, and employee likeability.  Susan is the bottom line when it comes to selection, but employees always have a say in what they wear.

Enough stock is kept on hand for new hires or unexpected damages.  To be sure, each employee is expected to take care of his own uniform.  There are spreadsheets that record each employee and what is given out at time of hire and orientation.  They either own the garments or they’re given out.  The uniform stock room depends on the time of year, in terms of gauging how many garments are needed for the slower months vs. the more active ones.  Also, different areas are recorded separately: For instance, the golf season may require a varying level of in stock apparel vs. the dining rooms, when it comes to seasonal needs.

Including part-timers, there are several thousand sets of uniforms that are in use on a regular basis, as most workers have at least three sets of garments.  Tailors in the surrounding area are recommended, but Zehnder’s, itself, does not have its own alteration department.  When a new employee is taken on, he ventures into the fitting room and is supervised by his area manager who makes sure that he has the correct items and is appropriately and attractively attired.

There is very little, if any, desire to re-vamp the uniform program.  “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” is the motto.  “We consider freshening things up a bit, from year to year, but that’s it,” says Susan.  “We’re happy.  People know who we are.  Our uniforms identify us in a way that’s easy.  If we put our uniforms only on a billboard, we wouldn’t even have to use our name, because our guests know us when they see us.”

The employees are shown how to iron, how to sew on their buttons or fix a tear, and how to clean their own garments.  Sloppiness is not allowed.  One has to look as good as possible.   If a worker arrives in a uniform that is less than “bandbox,” then he is sent home without pay.  If a garment is dirty or torn, there is no pay for the time spent repairing it on the job.  Tattoos, appropriate undergarments, jewelry, and shoes, are all discussed:  Expectations are clearly defined.   

Understanding the basic philosophy of Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth may appear to be somewhat old-fashioned or even odd in today’s anything-goes world.  But the other side of it is, how many can say—particularly in this day and age—that they’ve survived 82 years, remodeled and grown, including multiple wars, a depression, recessions, strikes, and plain hard times?  Truth be known, Zehnder’s, in its down-home, no frills, brass tacks simplicity, is just plain heart-warming.  It’s about American success, and the basic values that this country was made of.  Think about it, go there, try it.  And smile.