New Year’s Day is my cousin Alex’s birthday. Can you imagine turning 21 right at midnight, as everyone is partying their brains out? Pretty rad if you ask me. After the partying and much-needed sleep, Alex had a birthday party at die BierStube, a German tavern in Seattle. I couldn’t have thought of a better place.
The first thing I did when I got there was order a half liter of Bitburger. This was our grampa’s favorite beer and incidentally this was also his favorite place to get one.
Die BierStube has tons of German beer, but they also have a decent food menu. Lots of the items come on boards instead of plates.
Most of the table have this plaque, which reads “As in Germany, share tables with those you do not yet know.” When the place gets crowded, it’s good to know you can always sit at someone else’s table!
Many of the regulars keep personal steins behind the bar. Each one has an engraved name plate on it. You have to join the Stein Club and drink 100 liters to get one. Grampa was buried with his.
The bathroom doors seem like they should have an ugly guy on the other side who slides open the thing and asks for the password.
The whole place has a cool vibe. Just enough German to put you in the mood, but American enough to not be irritating. If there’s a Seahawks or Mariners game, you can bet die BierStube will have it on.
Eleven German beers on tap. What’s not to like?
Before long, toasts were being made. To Alex, to Grampa, and to beer.
Someone got Alex a bottle of Pendleton whisky. He used to live in Pendleton, Oregon, but that whisky is distilled in Canada.
His birthday cake was a red dinosaur. Fitting since instead of a teddy bear he had Red Dino as his favorite childhood stuffed animal. He reportedly still has it. Don’t get too embarrassed, Alex! Haha!
Seeing everyone else’s food made me hungry so I ordered a bratwurst sandwich. Ohhhh mannnnn it was soooooo good! And I don’t really dig sauerkraut. The stuff on this thing was more like regularkraut or even deliciouskraut.
I was about to take an artistic and visually compelling photo of my sandwich and refilled beer, a photo that would be in my Best of the ’10s for sure, but the waitress brought out Das Boot so I had to shoot that instead. Doesn’t Alex look frightened?
Das Boot is 2 liters. Our cousin Justin held up his cute, tiny 1/3 liter glass to compare, and rhetorically asked, “Who’s 40 and who’s 21?”
The rule for Das Boot is that you can’t set it down til it’s empty. Alex did some breathing exercises and started chugging.
There’s no rule that says you can’t have help. In fact, Das Boot is meant for groups.
We were off to a good start.
So much for cousin Katie’s New Year’s diet. She’ll start tomorrow.
Her sister Gina joined in.
Back to Alex, he wasn’t driving anyway.
Of course I had to help out too.
Alex’s dad took a swig.
And so did his mom.
After last night’s bottle of rum, Justin wasn’t too keen on chugging beer. He was considering skipping his second turn.
Nope! Gotta help Alex! Do it for Alex!
It went around to Alex again, and he killed it. Job well done, everyone.
Not long after that it was time to go. Happy birthday, cousin!
.:Bohan
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