I can’t tell you how many years I’ve sat there at the intersection of Harmon Ave and Paradise Rd. heading to the Hard Rock Hotel, and I look over to my right and see a moderate sized white building with a sign that says “Hofbräuhaus”. And I would think to myself, who even goes in there, Hofbräuhaus? German food in Vegas? Ok…whatever. With all these high end luxury glamour hotels, who has time for some run down Hofbräuhaus?

Answer? Everybody!

We happen to be in Vegas this for October, which just happens to be Oktoberfest. (If you must know, I stole the idea of Oktoberfest for my birthday month. If you can celebrate beer for a month, then you should definitely be able to celebrate your birthday for a month.) It’s mid-October, we go in and what I see absolutely amazes me.

This Hofbräuhaus in Las Vegas, Nevada… middle of the desert… is a beautiful replica of the original Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany.  The original was built in 1589 by Duke Maximiliann I. Amazingly enough, it wasn’t until 308 years later, in 1897, when  Ludwig I took over, that they actually opened the doors to the public. Previously it was a private bierhaus for the workers at the brewery. But when the brewery moved to the suburbs, really, they decided to repurpose the vast hall left behind. One of the first examples gentrification!  This is what Vegas does so well: Hofbräuhaus, Paris, Bellagio, Palazzo, all of them are replicas of the originals from Europe brought to the desert in living color. As we walk through these hotels and casinos in Vegas, I wonder how many people really take into account the effort it takes to replicate those great buildings. Even down to the ornate ceiling paint of the ‘sexpartite’, or six-parted supports for the ceiling. Sexpartite refers to the medieval Roman-inspired Saxon architecture of the vaulted support structure.

Not the wild Sex-parties that happen after guzzling stein after stein after stein of beer!

Once inside all the tables are communal tables were you sit down with any and everybody. Just our luck, we are set at a table with Drew and his buddies from Positive Proximity in Burbank, CA, my old hometown. They work for a small digital company and were already two steins deep into the evenings activities. Nancy and I did our best to catch up and the end result was a rousing evening of laughing, storytelling, Oompah bands, a chugging contest or two and something else that I simply refuse to remember.

I guess there some tradition in Germany, which explains Germans, where they feel paddling you is a public event to be shared by all. I seem to vaguely remember a girl bringing over Jägermeister shots, and I remember watching other people getting paddled and thinking that is crazy. The good thing is, the next morning I woke up not feeling any effect of the paddling at all. Which leads me to believe that maybe it didn’t happen. Maybe was all just a dream. And until I find the video I guess I’ll never know. Wait, just found it… oh you people are sick!