(Photos courtesy of Brauhaus Schmitz)
Much of the historic Greenpoint Terminal Market was decimated in 2006 when a fire ripped through it, but one of the remaining warehouses has since been fixed up into a gargantuan events space. You’ll recognize the 1890s brick-and-wood building as the place where Michael Che’s Netflix special was filmed, and now a massive Oktoberfest celebration is coming to it.
For years, Philadelphia beer bar Brauhaus Schmitz has taken over South Street (the St. Marks Place of Philly) for an always-mobbed Oktoberfest; last year they expanded by transforming a 16,000-square-foot armory building into a Munich festival tent. Apparently some 5,000 revelers gobbled up 2,000 pounds of sausage, and now the organizers are showing still more Bavarian bravado and bringing the celebration to Greenpoint. A press release pitches it as “the last, biggest and most authentic Oktoberfest celebration of 2017 in New York,” which means it’s aiming to give Zum Schneider’s annual, eight-day fest on the East River a run for its money.
At Philly’s 23rd Street Armory last year.
The three-day celebration, beginning Oct. 20, will mark the stateside debut of some 60 German beers from Reinheits Boten, a family of independent German craft breweries that was brought here in December by Williamsburg-based importer Liquid Projects. They’ll be pouring exclusively, so if you’re looking for Beck’s, tough shnitz. Then again, if you’re looking for Beck’s, you probably wouldn’t be paying $40 ($5 more for a reserved seat) to attend an Oktoberfest. Actually, the price of admission isn’t that much of a glass-boot kick to the face. After all, it includes a free liter of beer and live music from acts like the Heimatklange Band, who you may have seen at the 80th birthday celebration of Ridgewood’s Gottscheer Hall, and the Bratwurst Boys, who do polka renditions of songs by Elton John, Daft Punk, and the Beatles.
The Bratwurst Boys are from Long Island, so they also do accordioned-up versions of Billy Joel. You’ve been warned: