Review: Parkville’s Das Bierhalle is the Perfect Place to Celebrate Oktoberfest

At Das Bierhalle, October is more than a month. It’s a feeling. Co-owner Scott Bauer visited Germany during Oktoberfest a decade ago, and the trip changed the arc of his life. In 2018 he and his wife, Melissa, opened a German beer hall in their hometown of Parkville, with the mission of bringing Deutschland’s famously jovial drinking culture to Baltimore County 12 months a year.

Visit their German-American fusion restaurant and bar on Harford Road (it’s in the old home of The Barn, where you may remember taking your first legal drink—or your last underage one) and you’re struck immediately by the diversity of the clientele. The lunch crowd comes to enjoy sandwiches like the brat and kraut grilled cheese or the Gerbano, essentially a Cuban with bauernwurst. Soon it’s happy hour, when any of the 32 rotating beers on tap are $6 for a half-liter or $9 for a full one.

Dinnertime includes plenty of families. When the kids finish off their last schnitzel finger (or something less continental, like wings or the excellent mac and cheese), grown-ups fill the bar and long tables to drink and jam to live music or a deejay or tunes on the sound system.

In the original location (there’s a second in Bel Air), the décor could be described as a melding of German and Baltimore aesthetics. A Ravens jersey with “Das Bierhalle” written across the back hangs next to shelves of beer steins. Hofbräu banners line the perimeter of the ceiling, on which hangs a Maryland flag with a Natty Boh face on it.

This attempt to blend two cultures is evident on the menu as well. Appetizers include all-beef Bavarian franks ‘n’ beans, sauerkraut balls, and currywurst. The majority of the sausages come from the legendary Binkert’s, but the Old Bay and cheddar jalapeño varieties are made in-house. Pretzels garner their own spot on the menu. They range from bites to king-sized and can be topped with everything from cinnamon sugar to pulled pork.

During one visit, our 12-year-old guest gave the plain old salted variety an enthusiastic thumbs-up, but if your palate is a bit more adventurous, myriad dipping sauces are available. Hot horseradish mustard was the best we tried.

About half of the draft beer lines are dedicated to German brews. They change frequently, but you’ll always be able to find a wide variety, like Schwarzbier, Witbier, and Kölsch, among others. In July, a grapefruit hefeweizen was on tap. In addition to the drafts, 120 bottles and cans are available. For non-beer drinkers, more than a dozen crushes are usually listed on the menu, but there’s also a crush of the month—and it can be wild. Pink Starburst crush and ice lemon cake have been featured in the past.

Weekends often mean themed trivia brunches. One week it may be Mickey and Minnie Mouse in the spotlight (as the Bauers have four kids under four, it explains the kid-themed brunches); the next may be an all-ages pajama party.

Das Bierhalle strives to provide something for everyone, and to that, we raise our glass and say, “Prost!”