Celebration & Tradi

Celebration & Tradition

By Tom Worgo Photography by Stephen Buchanan

Every 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

Restaurant fashions and trends come and go, but sitting at a long table with family and friends and friends you are about to make never goes out of style.

Are there many other German restaurants in the region?

There are restaurants in D.C. and Baltimore, but they don’t have the beer garden like we do. We have been here for 37 years and people come in and say, “It’s a tradition for our family and we come in with our friends every year for Oktoberfest.” The thing people like about us is our longevity.

Tell me about some of the other things on the menu that set you apart? Where do you source the food from?

We follow up our Oktoberfest menu with wild game in the winter. It’s typically not something you see in a lot of restaurants. There is a following for this and it’s pretty intense. We do wild game. It’s always going to be something with venison, goose, and quail. We do quail a couple of different ways. Wild boar is another thing. They come from distributors that specialize in wild game. The food has to come from a certified distributor. A lot of it comes from the Midwest and overseas.

Customers come for your vast beer selection, too. Tell me what you offer?

We do our traditional German beer. In the last couple of years, with the opening of the outside beer bar, we have expanded into American crafts on top of traditional German Beers. We have 10 draft beers. Nine are standard and we always rotate what they call our 10th beer between a craft beer, or a German seasonal. We will also have anywhere between 30 and 40 German bottled beers and anywhere from 20 to 30 craft beers. We probably have 70 to 80 beers. A lot of places have too many beers and they don’t move them. At 70, we have quite a rotation. We are lucky to get some craft beers that we do get because they are hard to get.

Tell me more about your beer garden that is so popular?

We put the bar in about five or six years ago. It’s a great hangout place. People belly up to the bar for a couple of beers and an appetizer. We do a full dinner there, too. It’s definitely been a beacon for the last year or so with folks gravitating to the outside. People were escaping the make-shift tents, whereas we had outdoors already. Our business has been doing well because of it.

Do you have live music?

We have Sylvia, an accordion player. She strolls throughout the restaurant and beer garden. She has been doing it for more than 30 years. She is amazing. She is a one-person crew who can single-handedly get the 150plus people in the beer garden singing, dancing, and cheering.

How has pandemic changed business for the better?

We did a tremendous curbside business. Having the open-air beer garden was a big draw. We always did carry out, but it’s nothing like it is now. For a while, it was half our business. Our carry out is 10 to 15 percent of our business now. Before, it was less than five percent.

What is the next step in the history of the restaurant? Could your kids take it over one day?

If they did, that would be great. If they wanted to do something else, that would be great. I will cross that road in about 10 years. My three kids are young. One is 14. He started working in the kitchen. We kind of have loosely discussed it. If one or all three of my kids did this, it would be great. If they didn’t, I’d be okay.

Dip Trio

Three dips, great for parties; each recipe can be scaled down by half or more depending on party size

Smoked Trout Dip 1 Cup red onion, coarse chop 1 Cup radish, coarse chop 4.5 lbs. cream cheese, softened 1 Cup capers, drained 1/2 Cup chives, fine chop 1.5 lbs. smoked trout 1/4 Cup cherry peppers, minced salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together except trout. Add trout in chunks mixing gently. Season with salt and pepper.

Radish & Carrot Hummus 2 lbs. carrots, coarse chop 2 lbs. radish, coarse chop 2 Tbsp. marjoram 1.5 Tbsp. salt 1.5 Tbsp. pepper 3 garlic cloves, roasted 1 Cup tahini 1 lemon, juice zest 3 Tbsp. avocado oil

Toss carrots, radish, marjoram, and salt/pepper in avocado oil. Roast at 400F. Add roasted vegetables and rest of ingredients to blender and puree until desired consistency.

Obatzda 2 lbs. cambazola 1.5 lbs. cream cheese, softened 1/4 Cup paprika 2 Tbsp. Onion, granulated 2 Cups lager or light beer 2 Cups parmesan, grated 4 Tbsp. garlic, roasted 1/2 Cup whole grain mustard 1/2 Cup hotsauce salt and pepper to taste

Remove cream cheese and camembert from refrigerator and sit until room temperature. Add all ingredients but beer into mixing bowl with paddle attachment. Mix until smooth, adjusting consistency with the beer as needed. Season with salt and pepper.