Gingerbread village is an icon in Eugene to Florence travel. In fact, seeing the gingerbread village means we are almost to grandmas house. When we visited this time, of course we had to stop! But we had arrived on a Wednesday and they are closed tue/wed, still recovering from the small business effects of COVID.
So, we went the next day! The owner asked us if we had been there before, and being a brickerville resident (heading out of mapleton towards swisshome (best place in the world)) of COURSE i had eaten at gingerbread village! They had sponsored our 1st grade baseball team when we were the champions! I still have my t-shirt, and I'm now 43. Anywayyyyssss I'm a big fan of gingerbread village.
The owner was extremely apologetic. She said they had fallen on hard times with employees moving away and recovering from Covid- so they have had to change their restaurant experience. It is now serving a very nice salad bar that has a great selection of fresh veggies and lots of unexpected yummy extras- and a build your own pizza option, as well as burgers and a selection of soups, a few other things I can't remember. They had house fried fresh chips that were still hot. Very yummy. Two of my kids got the chicken and dumplings soup, and they both ate it all. My son said it was the best he has eaten. My husband had the burger, and hot tea. My older daughter had fresh chips because she's picky but then also ate some watermelon. I had the salad bar and I was impressed with the choices. There was a family there eating the custom pizzas, the kids were having fun designing their own pizzas. There's lots of room outside to run around.
The owner gave my kids a large rock and paint pens to decorate in our own way to place in a collection of travelers rocks. They also have several picture opportunities in the woods surrounding, like the ones I got of my son and gingerbread and our dog, and the Bigfoot giving finger hearts LOLZ. If you stop there, try yo spot him and post a pic. I'm sad I didn't get more pics. On our way back I'll get some more.
Input pics of Munsel Lake in Florence. we caught 12 trout in about 3 hours on my dad's boat. It is also very close to the ocean. It is the warmest lake I have ever visited. We would always go to the ocean and then go to munsel lake to get the sand off, and then go back home to Mapleton. I know this has nothing to do with gingerbread village, but if you're on a road trip, maybe you'll care. You need a fishing license to fish, but they sell them online and in stores. We got ours at bimart (we don't have bimart membership, they didn't care) my son also got a mini pole there. The license was 23.00 for one day for adults. Kids 12-17 is 10.00. 12 and under don't need a license. If you are over there in Florence anyway, Darlingtonia is up the street, it's a carnivorous plant nature reserve. It's easy walking and really cool. There's go karts and mini golf nearby too. And dunebuggy rental stuff.
Gingerbread village also had a lot of souvenirs and items for purchase for the local high school art program. I moved away before I made it to high school at mapleton. But I am an artist so I love supporting young artists and I love mapleton. Some of the ambiance- the plates- are still there, a lot of them anyway. The owner said that the owner before her sold most of them at a yard sale type sale. When she bought the place and re-named it "old world" gingerbread village, she vowed to not sell any more of them. She now has her globe collection scattered through the restaurant. It's pretty cool. The bouncy ball machines aren't there!! Bummer! Haha.
Don't forget the gingerbread!! Served us a huge chunk of fresh gingerbread, warm, and melting a scoop of delicious vanilla ice cream. We were so full we had to take it to go.
We were passing through again about a week later to go to our air BnB in yachats (there's a lady named Jana that has a spot RIGHT at bob beach, the loft is CRAZY CHEAP) (the first time we were there, we were staying at an air BnB in BRICKERVILLE can you believe it? Two houses away from where I grew up. Grandmas house)
So we were passing again and my husband INSISTED on more gingerbread and yes.... Omg. Yes. Right out of the oven, a box to go stuffed with gingerbread. We were eating fists full of gingerbread down the coast. Sooooo good.
So, I may be biased, but my husband is definitely not. He wants to stop for more on the way back to Eugene before we have to return to where we currently call home, San Diego... but my heart will always lie in Mapleton. read more