Food-cations highlights DC area restaurants or events that offer food and experiences so unique you might forget you’re in DC.

The world’s largest and most popular festival is just around the corner, but if you can’t make it to Munich, Germany, there are plenty of Oktoberfest celebrations in the DC area with all the beer and bratwurst you would want.

In the District, there’s no better place to enjoy authentic German fare in a festive beer garden atmosphere than Biergarten Haus in the H Street Corridor.

Grab a liter of Hofbräu Lager, snag a spot on one of the communal hardwood tables and benches in the massive outdoor patio and enjoy live polka music. Close your eyes and you may think you’re in a beer tent in Munich surrounded by women dressed in revealing dirndls and men in traditional lederhosen.

As many as 300 people have packed the beer garden during the weekends, while a weekday happy hour (4-7 p.m.) attracts the after-work crowd. For Oktoberfest, Biergarten Haus is offering 13 original imported Oktoberfest brews on tap and more German brews by the bottle.

The menu features traditional German dishes, including a variety of wurst (sausage), spätzle (egg-style noodles), brezel (pretzel), schnitzel (breaded meat cutlet) and sauerkraut.

Don’t miss the obatzda (a spiced cheese-butter spread) or the Schweinshaxn – a crispy skin-on braised pork shank served with house-made spicy mustard sauce.

This year, Oktoberfest runs from Sept. 22 through Oct. 7. But you don’t have to limit yourself to this two-week celebration of Bavarian culture. Biergarten Haus is open year-round, so you can raise a stein anytime. Prost!

Biergarten Haus
1355 H St. N.E.
(202) 388-4085