Why you should bring your Valentine to Essen Haus

Essen Haus is a great place to bring your Valentine's Day date for many reasons!  Here are just a few!
1) You will have a special bond after sharing a boot.
2) Polka dancing is an innocent reason to have physical contact.
3) Nick and Bob created an awesome special that includes fire! (If you are here on Thursday.)
4) If the date is not going particularly well, you can head to the dance floor. Before long you will be dancing with someone else that is either 50 years younger or 50 years older than you.
5) If you get the Valentine's Day special, you get a free bottle of wine or champagne to get the night going.
6) You will not have the fear of making a fool of yourself, as it is extremely acceptable to let loose at the Essen Haus.
7) You will have at least one good story to take with you.
Serving our Valentine's Day Special Feb. 14, 15, 16.

Tickets to the NYE 2013 Party Selling Faster than Ever!

Even before Thanksgiving anxious party people called the Essen Haus or Come Back In to purchase their tickets for the increasingly popular New Years Eve Party here at the Spass Platz. (trans. "place for good times.)

When we ask how these eager drinkers heard about the party, most of the time the response includes something that goes like this..."Our friends went last year and had an awesome time!  Or "We were there last year and had a blast! This year we have a huge group coming!"

Why are we telling you this?  Well, it's pretty obvious.  We have an awesome party and tickets are selling much faster than last year.  So if you want to make sure you have a ticket, don't wait until the last minute!  To learn more about the party visit http://essen-haus.com/special-events

ALL INCLUSIVE NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY AT ESSEN HAUS/COME BACK IN

Preparations for the Essen Haus/Come Back In 2013 All Inclusive New Years Party have been underway for weeks.  Not only does will this party ring in a new future, but also reminds Essen Haus of our past. This year marks 30 years of Essen Haus gemutlichkeit in Madison!

In celebration of the New Year and years past, this all inclusive party includes all you can drink and all you can eat pre-dinner, dinner, and bier munchies buffets, a champagne toast, party favors, and of course, free downtown parking.

Fueling the festivities with classic rock and blues, Live at Nine will rock the Come Back In. In addition to polka classics, The David Austin Band will get the crowd on the dance floor with Essen Haus favorites such as The Chicken Dance and The Hokey Pokey. 

$60 for tickets purchased before Dec. 25. $65 After.  Purchase your tickets at the Come Back In bar located at 508 E. Wilson St. (Next to the Essen Haus.)
Dec. 31, 6pm. Public Lockout 7pm-12am
GET YOUR TICKETS EARLY! WE SELL OUT EVERY YEAR! 500 AVAILABLE

UNDEAD EXPECTED TO APPEAR AT ZOMBIE DANCE/VIDEO PARTY AT COME BACK IN

Come Back In management anticipates a “Thriller”-like experience at their first Zombie Dance/Video party this Thurs., Oct. 25 starting at 9:30p.m. 

While spinning popular hits, classic throw backs, and spooky scary werewolf remixes, DJ Mr. Dance will add to the eerie undead atmosphere with Halloween videos playing on the many screens throughout the bar.

If you are not undead, you are still welcome to attend the party.  The Come Back In will supply zombie makeup for you. Dance stiff, moan and mumble, and you will fit in.  Also feel free to show up in your Halloween costume.

This party is cover- FREE with happy hour prices all night and fish bowls and beer sample paddles on special.  Next door Essen Haus welcomes the Eugene Smiles Project with boots of bier on special.  Catfish Stephenson plays live blues at the Up North with buckets of beer on special for $5.  Three bars, three bands, no cover.

KNOT WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT...

             Soft? Salty? What are we talking about...something that bier drinking would not be the same without... the soft pretzel.   

            Although the pretzel carries strong associations to Bavaria, the origin of the pretzel possibly goes back to Northern France or Italy. (Say what? Yes, it's true.)

            Around 600AD a monk on baking duty during Lent thought it would be a good idea to use a piece of leftover dough and create a piece of bread that emulated the crossed-arm praying position, popular at the time. (Guess you need to know your Catholic history.) Anyway, the inventive monk named the new creation pretiola, which means “little reward” in Latin. He used the  pretiola  as rewards for children who correctly recited their prayers.

Over time pretiola became a cheap and filling food that  monks handed out to those in need.

            Moving from monastery to monastery across the Alps, the pretiola found its way into Austria and Germany where it was linguistically corrupted to bretzel or pretzel as we know it today.

The pretzel remains a staple at any German restaurant, and certainly during Oktoberfest celebrations.  (A long way from the mouths of well-behaved babes to accomplished boot drinkers.)  In Munich Brotfrauen (bread women) sell pretzels to the bier full partiers. The bread women sell upwards of 400,000 Bretzeln (pretzels auf Deutsch) each year.   And of course, Essen Haus will have many of the bready treats on hand during Oktoberfest for your bier laden bellies.

DANCE OF YOUR DIRNDLS!

For the 29^th year, the Essen Haus hosts Madison’s Oktoberfest on Sat. Sept. 15.  Let the gemutlichkeit roll with bier, brats, polka and more.

If you were not aware Oktoberfest in Munich holds title for the biggest party in the world.   Essen Haus owner Bob Worm said that he began having Oktoberfest, and other traditional German celebrations because he wanted to bring that festive German party culture to Madison.  Worm held the Essen Haus’ first Oktoberfest just three weeks after the restaurant opened in September of 1983.

This year, the party starts with an Essen Haus favorite, The Rowe Brother’s Band.  Be ready to polka at 12pm.  

Also set up at 12 pm, artists from the successful July event, Art on the Side Show, will set up their booths and offer artistic activities for the whole family.  Many artists are adding a special German flair to their sideshow-like booths and games.

Neale Hansen, the General Manager, thought the carnival inspired art booths would be an excellent addition to this year’s Oktobefest.  “They have many more activities other than drinking at the Oktobefest in Munich, a carnival being one of them.  People had a lot of fun at the art show and I think it will add something sort of unique to our Oktoberfest,” explained Hansen.

Another popular event at the Art on the Side Show, will make a varied appearance at Oktoberfest.  Instead of a pie eating contest, we will hold a brat eating contest.  The first person to finish three brats wins.

Next on the agenda, the traditional band Dorf Kapelle, meaning village band, takes the Essen Haus stage at 4pm.  Recently seen at German Fest in Milwaukee, Dorf Kapelle, a veteran band existing for 24 years, is dedicated reproducing European wind music which includes polkas, waltzes and marches.  Their 18 piece band includes flutes, trombones, tubas and more!

The party moves inside the Essen Haus (we don’t want to disturb the neighbors after 8pm with our ruckus gemutlichkeit) with the Brewhaus Polka Kings.  Notorious for their Lawerence Welk bubble machine the band will certainly bring that German fun to the stage.  Be sure you wear your leather party pants and get on board with the biggest party in the world. 

RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

RELEASE THE HOUNDS! And bring them to the Come Back In for the 2^nd annual Dog Days of Summer! 

For the second year the Spass Platz (the 5 businesses on the corner of E. Wilson and Blair St., including the Essen Haus and Come Back In) host Dog Days of Summer, a benefit for Dane County Humane Society that celebrates all shapes and sizes of our best friends.

The free outdoor event boasts live music, games, contests, with participation from some of the best pet supply and care businesses in the Madison area.

Back by popular demand Live at Nine will entertain with their horn filled classic rock and blues. For the first time this year, performers from Teacher’s Pet Training Academy will show off their canine freestyle moves. 

Learn about the Madison Police Department’s  K-9 unit with demonstrations by K-9 Martie and Officer Rose Douglas.

If that’s not enough to get you down here, along with the great beer and excellent brats, the first 100 people and dogs to enter the gates receive free goodie bags.

Sponsors and participants include: Dawg Dayz Day Care, Mat Cat, The City of Madison Police Department, The Dog Den, Animart,  Exceptional Care for Animals, Tabby and Jacks, Talbot Photography, Don Miller, Dog Lovers of Madison, Lucky Dog Day Care, Mounds, Bad Dog Frida, Teacher’s Pet Training Academy, Galley 99.