Oktoberfest: You Still Have Time To Get Your Stein On in NYC

NEW YORK CITY —Although Oktoberfest typically runs the last week of September through early October in Germany, Americans are known to savor the event by stretching it out as long as possible.

Unfortunately Bavarian Premier Markus Söder announced back in the summer that Oktoberfest in Munich would canceled for a second consecutive year because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In New York however, with more than two-thirds of the residents vaccinated, you can still get your stein on for another 10 days.

Here's where Oktoberfest remains in full swing through Halloween:

The Standard Hotel is already something of a destination locale in the Meatpacking district, and their biergarten has been recruiting breweries to help commemorate Oktoberfest on Wednesdays over the last month. On Oct. 13 and 20, Brooklyn’s Sixpoint Brewery takes center stage, and their brews will be augmented with ales, pretzel necklaces and German music performed live. For more information, see their website.

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At Schaller & Weber, the Upper East Side German butcher shop, they've repurposed their backyard into a makeshift biergarten that remains open through the end of the month. And they're offering a menu of Teutonic delights, including such Austrian and German favorites as pumpkin soup and goulash, bauernwurst and weisswurst, bier brat sausage platters and fried camembert cheese with lingonberries, as well as a veal wiener schnitzel.

For good measure, they're also sourcing their beer from the oldest brewery in the world, the Bavarian Weihenstephan. Have a look at their website.

Perhaps the best-known of all the city's Oktoberfest eateries is the Watermark, which celebrates the annual bacchanalia over an intense two weeks of festivities. Here's a spot where you can not only find giant pretzels, authentic German beer and brats, but a variety of family-friendly events in a 3,500 square foot venue with truly breathtaking views of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges and the Brooklyn skyline. Here's their website.

At Radegast Hall and Biergarten, they're celebrating Oktoberfest in Williamsburg daily with traditional sausages and beer. But on weekends, they kick it up a notch: On Saturdays until the month's end, they host a pig roast, complete with a ceremonial wooden keg. There's a lot of Old World flavor besides as well, with live German music, and the staff and guests alike get into the spirit of things by showing off their dirndls and lederhosen. Check out their website.