Pierrot Gourmet (Gold Coast, Chicago — 118 E. Superior)

October in Chicago means Bears football, falling leaves and Oktoberfest. And as someone with a smidge of German in their blood, I never turn down an opportunity to indulge in cold beer and encased meats. So when I was invited* to attend a special Oktoberfest menu tasting at Chicago’s Pierrot Gourmet with a group of fellow writers, I jumped at the chance.

Pierrot Gourmet is an upscale German restaurant tucked into the most unlikely of places — the Peninsula Hotel. Headed up by German chef Kai Lermen (that’s him in the picture above),  the food is delicious and authentic. In fact, chef Kai had just returned from Oktoberfest in Germany a mere 12 hours before our meal. Well versed in German history and tradition, he taught us a few things about eating an authentic Oktoberfest meal. For example, you must always tap your glass of beer on the table before taking the first sip, and during prost (the German version of “cheers”), it’s considered bad luck to not make eye contact with those you’re celebrating with. So we all grabbed our mugs of beer (mine full of Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier dunkel, a dark wheat beer), said prost, and off we went.

Once into the meal, we were presented with a wide array of authentic dishes. I really enjoyed everything, but the items indicated in bold were my favorites.

Gemischte Salad Platte mit Kräuter Dressing — mixed greens, vegetable salad, herb dressing

Bayerische Linsensuppe mit Knackwurst — Bavarian lentil soup, knack sausage

Vesper Teller — German salami, cold cuts, cheese, deviled egg, pretzel, mustard

Oktoberfest Weißwurst mit Süßem Senf & Bretzel — Oktoberfest veal brats, sweet mustard, pretzel

Bayerische Schlachtplatte — butchers platter with smoked pork loin, nurnberger, Vienna sausage, crispy pork belly, schupfnudel, sauerkraut

Weiner Schnitzel — veal schnitzel, potato salad, lingon berries, mustard

“Rheinischer” Sauerbraten — beef pot roast, raisins, almonds, red cabbage, spätzle

Zitronen Roulade — lemon roulade cake

Apfelstrudel mit Vanille Sauce — apple strudel, vanilla sauce

Black Forest Cake — chocolate sponge cake, sour cherries, whipped cream

Looks pretty good, right? I enjoyed my experience at Pierrot Gourmet and would happily go back. In fact, I plan on bringing my dad sometime soon as I really think he’d enjoy the food (and beer!).

Get your Oktoberfest fix at Pierrot Gourmet now through October 30th. You’ll be glad you did.

*In exchange for the meal, I was asked to Tweet and blog about the event.