Save your spot!
Registration will open in 2025 for this festive German dinner! Seatings at 3pm, 4:30pm & 6pm.
Seien Deutsch für einen tag!
The Lutheran Church of Arcata's beloved Oktoberfest event features a festive Old World atmosphere, live accordion music, and authentic German cuisine. Donations for each plate help to support the ministries of our congregation.
Menu
Marinated Sauerbraten
Gingersnap Gravy
Spätzle
Suss-saures Rotkraut
Birnen, Bohnen, und Speck
Green Salad
Specially-baked Bread from Beck’s Bakery
Traditional German Desserts
Imported beer & wine available with additional requested donation.
Seven days in wine! Sauerbraten is the result of an amazing alchemy of wine, onions, spices, and vinegar — and served with gingersnap gravy, no less.
Spätzle specialists! Scratch-made “Black Forest Sparrow Dumplings” are expertly finished in European butter. Spätzle is German pasta formed in boiling water and then sautéed to a toasted golden goodness.
More info
Germany on the table!
The community is warmly invited to The Lutheran Church of Arcata’s Oktoberfest German Dinner, which occurs every year in late October. Going on its twelfth year, this culinary event sells out early; so German food lovers are encouraged to “macht schnell” and get their reservations as soon as tickets are made available.
Oktoberfest at The Lutheran Church of Arcata features an authentic seasonal German menu showcasing Sauerbraten beef roasts marinated for a full week in a traditional wine-vinegar-spice brine; rich gingersnap gravy; homemade Spätzle (German pasta sautéed in European butter); sweet-and-sour red cabbage (Suss-saures Rotkraut); crisp and tangy German-style green salad with a sharp Bavarian vinaigrette; and garden-fresh bacon-pear green beans (Birnen, Bohnen, und Speck).
Accompanying this meal is a selection of freshly-baked German breads, prepared especially for the dinner by Arcata’s Beck’s Bakery, and crafted from all-organic, Humboldt County-grown and locally-ground grains. The breads, based on traditional German recipes, are baked the very morning of the event, and, in addition to being served with the meal, loaves are available for sale, while supplies last.
Save room for Deutscher Dessert! Highlighted by Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte and scratch-made Apfelstrudel, the scintilating array of German delicacies at The Lutheran Church of Arcata’s Oktoberfest do not dissapoint.
Desserts do not disappoint — German Apfelstrudel and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake), as well as sundry other German pastries — all scratch made. To drink, an outstanding selection of imported German beers and wines will are available, as well as local fresh-pressed apple cider, coffee, tea, and lemon-kissed icewater.
The Oktoberfest meal is served tableside, family-style. Bavarian and fall-themed décor plus live accordion music complete the event’s festive Old World atmosphere. The reservation-only dinner is presented in three seatings: 3, 4:30, and 6pm. The requested donation is $25 adults; $15 students and kids. After expenses, funds raised at The Lutheran Church of Arcata’s Oktoberfest are dedicated to charity, service, mission support, and outreach in the greater Humboldt County community.
The Lutheran Church of Arcata conceived its annual Oktoberfest event as way of reaching out to the community with hospitality while celebrating Lutheranism’s unique heritage, which got its start in Wittenberg, Germany with Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, and the Reformation in the 16th Century. Lutheran churches across America generally commemorate the posting of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 with a “Reformation Sunday” each year in late October.
Good times, the German way! Experience Oktoberfest joy and a phenomenal German dinner at The Lutheran Church of Arcata.
The Lutheran Church of Arcata was dedicated in 1972, when Arcata’s first two Lutheran congregations, Our Redeemer’s and Faith (both in Arcata since the early 1950’s), came together as one in a beautiful new church facility at the forest’s edge, near Arcata’s Redwood Park and the Humboldt State University campus. The Lutheran Church of Arcata remains today a welcoming community of faith in the Lutheran Christian tradition. Lutheran Christianity embraces its ties to the historical, worldwide Christian church, and cherishes a rich, ancient liturgical tradition. The denomination is often characterized by three of Luther’s key tenets which challenged the authority of the Pope in the early 1500’s and helped set the Protestant Reformation in motion: Sola fide. Faith Alone. Sola gratia. Grace Alone. Sola scriptura. Scripture Alone. Lutherans have also been called “The Singing Church,” as Martin Luther proved to be as great a hymn-writer and beer-maker as he was reformer.
Thank you for your support!
The mission of The Lutheran Church of Arcata is made possible through generous giving.
Seating times
3pm, 4:30pm & 6pm
To-go Orders
Once available, please follow our registration link to let us know when you’d like to pick up your meal(s).
PRICE
$25 for adults & “To-Go” orders
$15 for kids/students
(Children ages 5 and under are free.)
Location
151 E. 16th Street
Arcata, CA 95521