By OWEN MORRIS
This weekend is uber-loaded with Oktoberfest events, which almost makes up for the lack of German restaurants in town. As subscribers to The Pitch's dining newsletter Pitch Forks know, there is only one German restaurant left in the Kansas City area, The Rheinland Restaurant in downtown Independence. But there's no lack of Oktoberfests this weekend.
The biggie is the downtown Oktoberfest at Crown Center Square from Friday to Sunday. It technically starts at 6 p.m. tonight but the party doesn't really get started until the keg tapping ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Crown Center has learned from the mistake of the Irish Festival that didn't have any authentic beer. For this event, it got Warsteiner as a host. Tickets are $5 and one wristband gets you re-entry for all three days of the festival. Hours on Saturday are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The other big Oktoberfest celebration is in downtown Lee Summit and also starts today. At its Biergarten Tent, $10 buys an entire authentic German meal with potato dumplings and Schweineschlegel (pork loin). On Saturday there's a brat-eating contest, root-beer chugging contest and a wiener dog parade. Best of all, the entire event is free to both kids and adults. It starts at 5 p.m. and closes at 10. Saturday's hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Finally, to you small but loud group from Lawrence that reads this blog: Try the St. John's Oktoberfest at St. John's Catholic Church at 12th and Kentucky. It starts at 4 p.m. Saturday and the food tent includes cabbage rolls, schnitzel and bratwurst. Come for the food and stay for the polka! But only until the party ends at 9 p.m. This Oktoberfest has limited-edition Oktoberfest mugs. In fact, if you have one from a previous year, you get a discount on all drinks.
Just be careful as those full liters of German beer can add up real quickly and before you know it, you'll be wearing lederhosen and singing Hänschen klein.
Showing 1-12 of 12
Owen, thanks for the recipe link, but the translation is rather mystifying. I'll keep looking…
Orphan, Boylan's makes a birch beer, which you can probably find at Whole Foods. I haven't tried it, but can vouch for their black cherry soda. You can also reportedly get Kutztown birch beer in Odessa, as well.
Anyone know where you can get birch beer in this area? Living amongst the Pennsylvania Dutch for a number of years made me favor this over root beer.
Hey Dan,
I wasn't meaning to belittle Irish Fest, after all I wrote a post about how impressed how was with the event and I'll be the first to tell you that you've done a great job with it.
It's just from a regular guy standpoint I was disappointed that I wasn't able to have a Guinness or (especially) Murphy's. I like Boulevard as much or more than the next guy and from the way sponsorship deals work I'm sure it made much more sense to go the way you did so I don't blame you one bit.
I probably should have worded that better but I stand by the statement that Irish Fest would have been better with some Irish beers.
KC Irish Fest 2008. Right for the Irish. Right for the City.
"I'm Dan Regan, and I approve this message."
"Crown Center has learned from the mistake of the Irish Festival that didn't have any authentic beer"?
A couple of problems with that statement. One, Crown Center hosts, but doesn't run either Oktoberfest or Irish Fest and they don't dictate what beers are served or what beer companies sponsor the events. And two, Irish Fest tapped a record 535 kegs over Labor Day weekend, most of them Kansas City brewed Boulevard products. For our money, there's no more "authentic" and appropriate choice for the Kansas City Irish Fest.
More than 500 kegs served to more than 95,000 people in two and a half days. A mistake? We don't think so.
Dan Regan
Director, Kansas City Irish Fest
I found a recipe for it from Germany; the only problem is that it's in German.
Any takers for Beth?
http://www.kochmix.de/rezept-s...
I went on Saturday and had the Schweineschlegel � fantastic, falling-apart tender with great flavor. Anyone know how I might snag the recipe?
Damn German will be the death of me. Thank you for the heads up Marc, I'll change it. In case anybody is reading this after I change it, the original headline was "Wilkommen Sie Zu Die OktoberFest Weekend!"
like
dislike
