Hofbrauhaus

On Sunday night, the group trekked to Hofbrauhaus to eat dinner, enjoy the culture and celebrate Amelia’s 20^th birthday. Thinking that most restaurants are calmer and emptier on Sunday nights in America, the Hofbrauhaus was anything but. Today (Monday) is a religious holiday, so it was packed with people enjoying their night and day off. We found out that the overcrowded atmosphere wasn’t even due to the holiday. This place is packed every day and every night with tourists and German people drinking, eating and singing to authentic German music played by a traditional German band. Women and men were up and dancing in open spaces between tables to the music. A little, old German woman grabbed Wesley and Anna, and dragged them to the dance floor. The cute lady spoke to us in German after we told her numerous times that we only spoke English. After a while, we just learned to smile and nod.

The Bayern Munich soccer team also won the Bavarian division Sunday to obtain the title for a league, so many people dining and drinking were decked out in soccer gear and happily drinking, eating and chanting. Every couple minutes the German band would play a tune and Germans would stand up in their booths with their beer mugs and chant a fight song. The team will now go on to play a different team in another division. It was a fun and exciting atmosphere to say the least.

            Now…onto the food. Traditional German food was served at the Hofbrauhaus like spaetzle, their famous ½ of roasted chicken, pretzels, potato and vegetable soup and traditional sausage dishes. Also, we can’t forget the beer. It was served in 1-liter mugs in constant flows to everyone of age in the room… The drinking age is 16-years-old, so it was almost everyone. You can even drink at 14-years-old if you are with your parents. Each restaurant in Germany typically sells one brand of beer, and the Hofbrauhaus serves its own brand in mugs that say “HB Munchen”.

            Women and men in traditional German clothing served the food. The men wore thick leather pants, high socks and a white shirt known as lederhosen. The women wore long, busty dresses known as dirndl. Women carried around baskets of pretzels and other bread to hand out to each table if people wanted to buy it, kind of like an appetizer. The atmosphere, food and good company attracts people from all over to come eat at the old brewery and now beer garden for a typical German meal and experience.