Dollywood recently ran a poll for people to vote on their favorite thing to eat at Dollywood with the finalized choices being apple pie, cinnamon bread, specialty apples, and kettle korn. First off, all of these treats are incredibly delicious and extremely popular! However, there could only be one king of treats to be voted the absolute best thing to eat at Dollywood. After hundreds of votes, the winner was the extremely tasty, fresh-baked cinnamon bread from Dollywood’s Grist Mill! Read below to see what makes this cinnamon bread the best thing to eat at Dollywood.
For a long time, the cinnamon bread was somewhat of an “insider secret” that not a lot of people knew about and the exclusive few that did had it all to themselves! Over time, word spread about this delicious treat and the Grist Mill was doubled in size during 2013 to handle the increased demand.
The Grist Mill at Dollywood
So what makes the cinnamon bread so amazing? First, a bit of history. The Grist Mill was built in 1983 back when the park was called Silver Dollar City. The mill was built by the Silver Dollar City craftsmen and was the first working grist mill built in Tennessee in over 100 years! The roof shingles were split by hand, and all the door hardware was created onsite by the park’s blacksmiths. The structure’s round logs were hewed by hand in front of the building site with holes drilled in the logs by hand using different size augers. The architectural shingles on the side of the building and all lumber were milled at the park’s sawmill. The window panes were made by the park’s glassblowers, and each window frame was made onsite using steam engine power to operate the five-in-one machine which is now located in the Valley Carriage Works wagon shop. Construction took six months; these days, the mill grinds corn and wheat into freshflour every day…which helps make the cinnamon bread so amazingly fresh and delicious!
The Grist Mill makes numerous loaves of cinnamon bread each day…sometimes more than 1,000 loaves in a single day!
If you’ve never tried the cinnamon bread at Dollywood, the next time you visit head up to Craftman’s Valley. When you pass underneath the train track, look to your left and you’ll see the Grist Mill. You’ll probably smell the cinnamon bread before you see the mill!
Have you had the cinnamon bread at the Grist Mill? Share your thoughts about it in the comments below! Or share what your favorite thing to eat at Dollywood is!
