Food

10 Fun Food Events Around DC This Weekend

On the menu: Oktoberfest, a puppy party, and a West African night market.

Photo courtesy of Wunder Garten.

On Thursday, ChurchKey is hosting friends from the Mile High City for a special Colorado beer tasting. Denver’s own Cerebral Brewing will offer a special lineup of eight drafts, priced individually by the glass and tasting pours.

Head to the National Housing Center on Thursday night for HeArt & Sole, a fundraiser benefiting Central Union Mission. Hosted by “Hell’s Kitchen” winner chef Rock Harper, the evening will feature a cooking competition, live music, and plenty to eat and drink. Tickets start at $65.

Image from ChurchKey’s Facebook.

Take a wine tour of Sicily from the comfort of Georgetown’s Via Umbria on Friday at 6 PM. The Italian market and restaurant will offer a wine tasting with guidance from experts from Tenuta di Castellaro Winery. Tickets are $20.

Wundergarten launches two weekends of Oktoberfest celebrations on Friday. The festivities launch with an official “tapping of the keg” followed by plenty of Märzen-style draft beers from Bavaria’s oldest breweries (Spaten, Franziskaner, and Hofbräuhaus) plus local brews. Cafe Berlin and other vendors will serve German fare. Check the schedule for activities like the Bavarian Olympics and “Pridetoberfest.”

In celebration of its one year anniversary, Pendleton Carryout Co. in Alexandria will host a dog adoption party on Saturday from 2 to 5 PM. The food incubator will have burgers, pizza, and dumplings for humans, and snacks from the Woofbowl food truck for your furry friend.

Oktoberfest is back again at Owen’s Ordinary this Sunday from noon to 5 PM. The North Bethesda beer garden put together an impressive list of German-style beers and Bavarian-inspired bites from chef Jonathan Collins for the occasion.

Chicken + Whiskey. Photograph by Evy Mages

Test your luck during Chicken + Whiskey’s “Poker Run”on Sunday from 4 to 8 PM benefiting Chance for Life, a pediatric cancer research non-profit. Guests will compete in bar games at restaurants along 14th Street, collecting a playing card at each location to form a poker hand. Guests with the top three poker hands will receive prizes, and a percentage of bar proceeds from participating restaurants will benefit Chance for Life.

On Sunday night, The Pig is serving a four-course tasting menu starting at 5 PM with cocktail and whiskey pairings of Angel’s Envy Bourbon. Expect unusual morsels like bourbon and brown butter ice cream with candied bacon. The dinner is $60 per person.

And heading into next week…

Image courtesy of Kith/Kin.

In honor of Kith and Kin’s two-year anniversary, the Wharf restaurant is transforming into a West African late-night market on Tuesday from 8 PM to midnight. Join chef/owner Kwame Onwuachi for an all-night celebration with live music, DJs, dancers, and West African dishes from some of your favorite DC chefs. Tickets are $75.

Hockey is back in the District, and you can watch the Capitals drop the puck on Wednesday from The Brig. Starting at 5 PM, the beer garden will host a season opener watch party featuring a special Hops Hops Hops IPA brewed for the hockey season, plus $6 pints and $11 liters of Festbier.

Editorial Fellow

Madeline Rundlett is an editorial fellow for Washingtonian. She previously covered All-Met sports for the Washington Post and was an editorial intern at The Hill. Madeline graduated from the George Washington University with a degree in Political Communication in 2019.