A Celebration of Lives

For the fourteenth straight year, Artisan's Annual Oktoberfest celebration brought lots of good folks together for a rollicking good time. The Artisan's Dirndl Beauties were on hand, as were Chef Extraordinaire Steve Farley and Der Braumeister Dave Hoffmann, as were the Polkadelphians and the usual, happy hordes that came to celebrate Jersey's best Oktoberfest.

But the night began with two touching tributes to men who would be there only in spirit this night. Pete and Petro's dad Teddy and Dave Hoffmann's dad Kurt had both passed on to the their eternal rewards in the time since the last fest. Panagiati raised his glass to his dad, and Dave hoisted a stein to his. The entire assembly joined them in a wonderful toast to two men who celebrated life to the fullest.

And the rest of the night was proof that the rest of us followed their respective leads.

There was singen, essen, trinken, lachen and even tanzen, as the celebrants dined on exceptional food, drank outstanding beers, competed in not one, but two Masskrugstemmen events, all the while enjoying jokes and singing repeated choruses of "Ein Prosit." The night concluded with a rousing rendition of "God Bless America" with voices--and steins raised in unison.

Artisan's fifteenth year under the guidance of the Gregorakis family was celebrated with a special Kolsch beer crafted by Dave Hoffmann, coupled with Steve Farley's Gargantuan Shrimp Cocktail with special dipping sauce. Dave also put forth his version of a Lite beer--which was anything but light, especially on flavor, as a complement to some delectable German raviolis. Then came the Wurst Platter and Dave's brand new "Wet Hop" IPA, made with Jersey grown hops.

Soon it was time for the annual, traditional keg-tapping of the special Oktoberfest beer, one of Hoffmann's fortes. Guest Barbara happily "tapped the bunghole" with assistance from Dave and his man Friday (Roger Freitag). It accompanied a main course of cut-it-with-your-fork Sauerbraten, Spaetzle and Potato pancakes with homemade applesauce. The food was delivered in such portions that few thought they could handle dessert.

But they did. A fabulous pairing of Apple Strudel and Dave's classic Pumpkin beer topped off the night, after which guests waddled to their cars. The Dirndl Beauties--almost all new this year did outstanding work delivering food and beers with efficiency and winning smiles. Kudos to Kelsey, Jackie, Taylor and Angel and the veteran Victoria.

The restaurant, busy as usual on a Friday night, even had a repast going on in another room. but apparently two lovely guests from that event were drawn to the frivolity and sat down for a beer with the PubScout. Hey, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

And kudos also to the winners of the Masskrugstemmen contest, Dave for the men and Darlene for the women, who not only won rare german bier ware provided by the Pubscout, but earned $25 gift certificates to Artisan's.

In all, another successful event.

All done in a celebration of lives--Teddy's, Kurt's--and our own.