Vonia and I visited the Carlin Lake Lodge Friday night during their “Oktoberfest” Celebration. The Lodge/Restaurant is located near Presque Isle, Wisconsin, deep in the Northwoods. The new owners of the lodge set-up a beer tent across two weekends in early August.
We started with dinner in the main lodge. The place was packed and getting a table was tough – fortunately Vonia planned ahead and reserved a place for us. My parents weren’t as lucky – the decided to join us and ended up eating at the bar – even though my dad tried to steal my table just before we got there! Anyways, the food was pretty good – we all had the Wiener Schniztel. Though not as good or as big as the Schnitzel at Hotel Ruchti, it was tasty. The homemade preztel rolls were also a big hit.
Adjourning to the beer tent around 7:15, we found a good table directly accross from the stage. Of course, I had to pull out my white and blue table cloth! I retrieved a couple of beers – $12 for a Mass. They were serving small beer in plastic mugs for $4, but the two bartenders got a kick out of filling up my beer steins. They had Hacker-Pschorr Edelhell and Weissbier on draft along with Miller Lite. Outside the tent, they were grilling bratwurst and selling giant dill pickles. Still full from dinner, we didn’t try the sausages and stuck with the Edelhell (Helles/Lager).
When the music started around 8 PM, the tent filled up quickly – perhaps 200 people or so. The Johnny Wagner Band put on a good show. The main performer, John, is originally from Franconia, near Nuremburg, but now calls Chicago home. He’s a good entertainer and new how to appeal to the crowd. They started things off quickly with Rosamunde – known as the beer barrel polka. He got a lot of audience support as he taught everyone “A Prosit der Gemuetlichkeit” and how to properly link arms and sway together to the music. My parents and my Dad’s buddy, John, had a great time, but left too early. My mom wanted to stay, but Dad and John were only focused on their 8AM tee-time on Saturday. My mom is a ton of fun in a beer tent – the last time we sang and danced together to German music, we ended up in a police station. So, maybe it’s better they left early!
Perhaps the biggest hit of the night were the bells. They did two sets of songs – one was a solo performance of “Edelweiss” and the second was a duet. The many kids in the crowd were mezmorized by the bell ringing.
Johnny also had his Alphorn
with him and this also was a crowd pleaser since many had never seen one. Although not a traditional song, he played a great number on it and the crowd loved it.
In the third set, Johnny dressed up as “the professor” and, pulling a woman from the audience to assist him, he offer a german language lesson with his rendition of “die Schnitzelbank”
As the night progressed, a lot of people did leave the tent, but the music lasted until midnight. T
here were a lot of people dancing throughout the evening – the polkas were a big hit and only surpassed by the “Chicken Dance.” Kathy and I hit the dance floor for that one and took a beating – elbows were flying every which way!
There was an elderly couple there that entertained everyone with their dance moves. The lady wanted to dance every number, and the elderly gent did his best to comply. They were fun to watch, though many of us had our cell phones ready to call 911.
Kathy was also kind enough to distribute our brochures and bookmarks around the tent. Several people came over to talk to us about our trip to Oktoberfest and one crazy lady even “dontated” the remains of her beer pitcher to us as she left the tent.
We packed it up shortly before midnight and Vonia drove us all home. It was great night in the tent shared with great friends!
More information on the Johnny Wagner Band can be found here: