Oktoberfests give people one last outdoor blast before the blustery months of winter, when most festivals are held indoors and the only people that show up are bears. Partake in an annual tradition with today’s Groupon: for $60, you get two tickets to Oktoberfest at the LaSalle Reception Center and a $50 credit to the Vienna Restaurant and Historic Inn in Southbridge (a $120 value).
The eighth annual Oktoberfest hosted by the Vienna Restaurant and Historic Inn heralds the wintry months ahead with an evening of feasting and festivities. Doors and unlatch at 5:30 p.m., allowing guests to mingle while dipping their fingers into complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Admission grants guests a heaping helping of dinner, served at 6:30 p.m., and including bratwurst, knackwurst, spätzle, and an apple strudel dessert sweeter than the intentions of a kindergartner pouring cereal on his mother's bed on her birthday. Scoring the evening, the Stratton Mountain Boys, who have performed at Disney World, lend their Austrian melodies to the festivities.
This deal also encourages people to traverse up the road to the Vienna Restaurant and Historic Inn for a sampling of Austrian/German cuisine. Entrees include the tafelspitz, in which a slice of roast beef lounges with horseradish cream and spätzle ($19), and the schnitzel cordon bleu, a veal cutlet with Black Forest ham and swiss cheese ($26). Inside the fairy-tale-esque cottage, diners stroll over wood floors, recline on velvet furniture, and gaze into working fireplaces to warm up while incinerating the paper trail leading back to their plots to depose Cap'n Crunch. An outdoor patio and porch enchants guests with flickering firelight.