Branson, Mo. -- At Grandma Ruth's Cinnamon Rolls, they use unbleached flour, pure cinnamon, and loads of butter in every homemade batch.
"It was my grandma's recipe. Then my mom and I kinda revised a little bit over the years," said Rod Grueneich, one of the owners of the cinnamon roll bakery.
Grueneich and his mother, affectionately known as Grandma Ruth, make dozens of cinnamon rolls from scratch every morning. They typically start mixing the dough at 4:30 a.m.
"It's a comfort food," Grueneich said.
Two weeks after a devastating EF-2 twister raced down the Branson strip, businesses here are still working to recover. Greuneich and his family hope to make that process a bit sweeter for their neighbors.
"When the tornado hit, and we were down for the seven days or six days, it really hurt our business. We went backwards," Grueneich said.
Grandma Ruth's is one of the dozens of businesses indirectly hit by the tornado on Feb. 29.
"We had no damage to the building at all," Grueneich said.
That means Grandma Ruth's business insurance policy won't cover their losses, "even though the electricity was down, and we couldn't do nothing for a week, (and) even though state troopers were guarding 76 and not letting people up and down," Grueneich said.
Instead of cutting down on production during this tough time, the Grueneich family is making even more rolls. Every day they deliver them to construction crews and volunteers working to bring Branson back to what it was before the tornado.
"We're working hard, and to have people show up and volunteer to help you clean up or just say thank you for helping our community is always great," said Daniel Benoit, a roofer with Rich Kramer Construction.
