Get your Hofbräu on at Solaire’s Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest is the season when media is treated to German sausages, pretzels, sauerkraut, and sometimes an impromptu session of Duolingo. This usually commences after opening remarks, and after raising a beer mug or two, when there are either friendly drinking games or — in the case of Solaire, which is preparing for Oktoberfest from Oct. 9 to 11 at the Grand Ballroom — a singalong that teaches you German words.
Thus we watched as the media launch turned into a flash mob committed to teaching a crowd to dance and flap their arms to the Fliegerlied, a popular Bavarian jam that involves “schwimming” (swimming) and “fliaging” (flying), as every lederhosen-wearing waiter and dirndl-dressed barmaid in the room spontaneously joined in.
Moments like those make you admire the carefree holiday that is Oktoberfest. Good times await in the Grand Ballroom, with bottomless beer, bratwurst and beats by the Bavarian Sound Express. (Martin Rivera is also performing, we hear, along with the Oktoberfest Band from Lake Constance, Austria.) On hand were members of German Club of the Philippines, which has been actively promoting Oktoberfest here since about 1906; Oktoberfest host and chairman Michael Scheile; and Solaire Resort Entertainment City VP for F&B and Culinary Sebastian Kellerhoff, all of whom raised a beer to get the party started.
Speaking of beer, the Solaire event features Hofbräu, a classic Munich-style beer, as its official brewski on tap. While sampling beer from one of the very first Munich breweries, guests can experience an “authentic Bavarian festival designed like the Hofbräuhaus München,” Hofbräu brewery’s iconic flagship beer hall.
More German vocab. “O’zapft is!” is what you say when the first keg is tapped. Then, start your feast with Bavarian delicacies served family-style in each beer-garden table. In the brotkorb (breadbasket), sample oven-fresh German breads and laugenbrezel (Bavarian-style soft pretzels), fresh räucherlachs (German-style smoked salmon), and wiesen jause (German cold cuts and cheeses) to go with your Hofbräu. There’ll be Münchner wurstsalat (Munich-style sausage salad), kartoffelsalat (German potato salad) and krautsalad (white cabbage salad) to sample as well.
Next comes the best of the wurst — a table full of bratwurst, in fact — including weisswurst, a Munich-style poached veal and pork sausage dish, rostbratwurst, grilled coarse pork sausage, and Frankfurters with potato salad and Kaiser rolls.
The meat parade continues with the hauptgang (main course): a Wiesn platte (Bavarian meat platter) consisting of crispy pork knuckle, pork schnitzel, meat loaf, rotisserie chicken, sausage, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and onion jus. Sample a hearty rindsgulasch (beef goulash), with braised beef ragout served with bread dumplings. Don’t forget the authentic and delicious hausgemachte käse spätzle (homemade cheese spätzle), oozing with mountain cheese and crispy onions.
Scheile reminded us that early bird ticket sales for both individual and corporate groups start July 1, and Solaire Rewards Card members get 10% off regular-priced tickets. That’s worth raising a stein or two to. So get ready to prost!, Manila.
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Experience and celebrate German culture at Solaire Resort Entertainment City’s Oktoberfest party. Seats available at https://oktoberfest.ph.
