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Photo Credit: Jamie Chung
09/29/09
Grin and Bier It
Oktoberfest Your Umlauts Off
You don't need a reason to drink beer, but every year the great nation of Germany is gracious enough to give us one. (And what are the Germans if not gracious?) Here are five ways to hoist one in their direction.
SMASHING PUMPKINS
Oktoberfest & Pumpkin Beer Festival
There's always something crazy going on at Delilah's, but tonight you'll double your pleasure. Start with a
beer seminar/tasting about every pumpkin beer in existence (plus or minus a few hundred), and then move into
a multi-year tasting of the celebrated Bavarian export, Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen. It's BYO pretzels.
- 411:
- No cost, 5-9pm, Sept 29, Delilah's, 2771 N. Lincoln Ave, 773-472-2771
DAS BOOT
Shoreline Sightseeing Oktoberfest Cruise
An autumn cruise down the Chicago River with a few beers and brats has an allure all its own, but you've
always felt what was missing has been a little oompah. Here to rectify that: this cruise (really, a floating
sausage and beer fest), which features German background music for the perfect ambience.
- 411:
- $45, noon-1:30pm, Oct 3, Shoreline Cruises, Navy Pier (near Illinois St), 312-222-9328
ROCKTOBER
Oktoberfest at Mirabell
This year-round homage to Bavarian culinary tradition sets aside two weekends to amp up the offerings with
seasonal specialties like roast duck, German-style fried chicken, plus the best of their wursts. Live German
bands will start with traditional music, then venture in to Teutonic rock.
- 411:
- Time TBD, Oct 9-10 & 23-24, Mirabell, 3454 W. Addison St, 773-463-1962
STEIN WAY
Costume Party at Überstein
Usually a giant glass boot filled with $10 Hofbräu is party enough—and it will be on Friday
night. But consider it a warm-up to Saturday's costume party, which finally gives you a place to wear those
lederhosen and mingle with saucy beer maidens wearing their finest décolletage-enhancing ruffles.
- 411:
- 7pm-2am Oct 9; 8pm-3am Oct 10, Überstein, 3478 N. Clark St, 773-883-0300
THE OTHER BOOT FALLS
Beer Boots at Citizen
This after-work River North favorite is holding a three-day party with a bratwurst cookout upstairs on the
patio and all the Warsteiner drafts you can drink out of their boot-shaped steins—basically, the
German answer to drinking champagne out of a slipper.
- 411:
- $25 Boots, Oct 8-10, Citizen Bar, 364 W. Erie St, 312-640-1156
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