DINING TASTE
Celebration & Tradition
E
By Tom Worgo Photography by Stephen Buchanan
very day is Oktoberfest at the Old Stein Inn in Edgewater during the fall. Customers pack the restaurant indoors and in the beer garden outdoors.
“From the middle of September into November, it’s just one big party,” Old Stein Inn owner Mike Selinger says. “We get people from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Virginia, Delaware, and obviously Annapolis. People come from hours away.”
When it comes to German food and beer, the restaurant has little local competition. The Old Stein Inn is the only German establishment in the county. A big draw during Oktoberfest and year-round is the spacious 20-year-old beer garden, which seats around 150 people. Of course, the unique menu also pulls in the customers. The winter menu features a variety of wild game that you won’t find at many other places. Over the years, popular items have included elk meat balls, rabbit ragout, duck hash, and quail. Selinger took the restaurant over in 1993 from his Germany-born parents, who founded it a decade earlier. Since then, it has gotten national attention. OpenTable picked the Old Stein Inn as one of the 100 Best Al Fresco Dining Restaurants in America in 2016 among 10,000 considered. The restaurant also on appeared on The Best Of show on the Food Network.
We recently talked to the 51-yearold Selinger about Oktoberfest, his vast beer selection, and how the pandemic has helped business. How big a part of Oktoberfest is your business? It gets really crowded. About 2,500 people come through in a week. We almost doubled our business in the fall. People really like our place. There’s not many big German restaurants around like ours. That are as big as we are, and that can do an Octoberfest with music like we do.
What kind of food do you offer during Oktoberfest? In the fall, we go toward a more traditional Oktoberfest menu. We call it the beer garden menu even though it’s available inside and outside. We will do pork roast, festival chicken, German Oktoberfest street food, and dinner kebabs. Besides the lengthy Oktoberfest, what makes your place different? People absolutely love our beer garden. The atmosphere is great.
OLD STEIN INN 1143 Central Avenue, Edgewater 410-798-6807 oldstein-inn.com
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