After 28 years, German restaurant Bavarian Grill in Plano will close and move

Bavarian Grill is closing its original Plano restaurant – home for 28 years – with plans to reopen half a mile away.

The last day food is served at 221 W. Parker Road is Wednesday, November 24th, 2021, the day before Thanksgiving.

Alan Walling sipped a beer while playing traditional German music on the accordion at the Bavarian Grill in Plano in 2017.(Jason Janik / special article)

Owner Jürgen Mahneke’s lease expires at the end of November, and instead of extending it, he bought a former Golden Corral restaurant on 3425 Premier Drive. The relocated German restaurant is expected to open at the new address in early December.

He explains it this way: If you have a door that has been opened 100 times a day for decades, “you have to buy a new door,” he says. “Do I want to buy a new door or do I want to buy a building that already has a new door installed?” He chose the latter.

“When I walked into this room, I thought, ‘Wow,’” he says. “I think my creativity told me: This is the opportunity you are looking for.”

The move should not be easy, however, because the Bavarian Grill has collected all sorts of decorations that Mahneke wants to move to the new restaurant. Three pairs of trains will drive to the new restaurant, which is to go around the dining room and beer garden as before. The “puzzle wall”, consisting of puzzles that customers put together while waiting for tables, will also be moved. And in the new restaurant, new wall paintings are reminiscent of the old ones.

You just missed it, but every fall, Bavarian Grill hosts a boisterous Oktoberfest with live music, schnitzel and beer.(Jason Janik / special article)

The new Bavarian Grill will seat roughly the same number of people, but with a larger kitchen and more spacious toilets. It will have the same core menu.

The most popular dish all year round is the Jägerschnitzel: breaded and roasted pork in a brown demiglace with mushrooms. Order it with spaetzle and a mixed salad and you have typical German food, says Mahneke, who was born and raised there.

He is determined to keep the Bavarian Grill authentic with no “American slang” dishes on the menu.

“As soon as you have a burger on the menu or a chicken fried steak, it’s really no longer German,” he says. “I see a lot of places that do … and then they go away.”

A permanent closure was an option as Mahneke was nearing the end of the Bavarian Grill lease. But he says he’s glad he found another way.

“Over the years we’ve made so many friends – who have become really, really friends. It doesn’t even feel like they’re guests, ”he says.

The Bavarian Grill is located at 221 W. Parker Road, Plano until November 24, 2021. The new Bavarian Grill is expected to open in December 2021 at 3425 Premier Drive, Plano. More information on the exact date will follow.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter @sblaskovich.

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