Get your wiener on!

During Marathon Man’s Chicago visit in October, we were both in the mood for sausages (SAUSAGES! SAUSAGES! Think the bud light talking dog commercial….hilarious!). A friend recommended a great German restaurant, Bauhaus, nearby. When we showed up, we were greeted by an authentic Oomph band….in lederhosen! Yep, tubas, accordions, round bellies, etc. The wait for a table was 2 hours because evidently today was the grand finale of their Octoberfest celebration. We grabbed seats at the bar and ate our dinner (taste of Octoberfest – more sausages and schnitzel that you could dream of) and drank from the largest steins they had. I think each beer was 1.5 liters! You could upsize for a ‘boot’ which is 2-3 liters. Yep, a frigg’in boot! Like in the movie ‘beerfest’! It was awesome. Evidently you had to put your credit card down just to drink out of one because people tend to break them a lot. Really, drinking a boot-full of German beer doesn’t make you clumsy at all, pssft. Daaasss-boot!

We were surrounded by a whole bunch of senior citizen women in traditional Bavarian dress. They were loving our shit and kept telling us “oh it is so nice to see young people taking part in their heritage”. M-Man said we were hanging with the grandmas.

The band was oomph awesome and drank like it was their second job that night. Halfway through our stay, the band leader decided to create a conga line (called a “polka line”) and everyone joined in. Yep, drunk frat boys, couples on a date, old men and women all hopping along with the beat of the tuba. Later the tuba played and walked around the restaurant to collect tips for the band. To tip them, you threw quarters into the tuba! Granted everyone was smashed, so our aim was not really on. I am sure a few stray quarters ended up in some one’s potatoes.

Eventually, the grandmas convinced M-Man to polka dance with me on the dance floor. It turned out more like a drunken hopping, but romantic none-the-less. Don’t worry, there were several other drunk couples out there (many registered with AARP). In the end, we ended up staying 3-4 hours, and I would say it was the best date ever!