Oktoberfest Transforms Campus Pub

Pub workers traded aprons for lederhosen Friday night as the Cambridge Queen’s Head celebrated the German holiday of Oktoberfest.

With posters of stein glasses on the walls and a German brass band playing polka, the Queen’s Head served regional fare—three different kinds of bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato salad.

“It was great. It was fantastic,” said Joshua P. Woodruff ’11, the Queen’s Head’s student manager of marketing. “The pub was full all night. We had a great time serving out the German cuisine.”

In addition to German food, the pub had four Oktoberfest-themed beers on tap—including Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen and Spaten Oktoberfest from Germany—and four bottled beers especially selected for the occasion, ranging from New England’s Sam Adams OctoberFest to the German Weihenstephan.

Some patrons got into the German spirit with gusto.

James B. Danner ’12 came early in the evening wearing suede lederhosen, a traditional mountain jacket, and a pair of mountaineering boots called bergschuhe.

“It’s just nice to pretend we’re in a very different state of mind,” he said, reminiscing on his summer in Germany. “Munich’s a very different city.”

Danner came with Lillian L. Erlinger ’10, who lived in Germany for six years and frequented Oktoberfest in Munich.

“We just wanted to wear the outfits,” Erlinger said, and she was appropriately bedecked in a blue dirndl—a folk dress consisting of a petticoat, blouse, skirt and apron.

Not all of the customers present were prepared for the Oktoberfest-ivities at the pub, and some were surprised by the elaborate celebration.

New York University graduate student Rich S. Carapezza and Cristina Ortiz ’10 stuck to nachos and French bread pizza over Pilsner and knackwurst.

“We just came here to get food because we missed the dining hall hours,” said Carapezza.

“I was really happy when I saw what was going on,” Ortiz said. “It seems like a lot of fun.”

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.