Apartment Showcase Blog

Grin and beer it: Drinks (obviously) and food will be readily available, but you'll have to bring your own lederhosen if you want to impress the ladies. (Bulldog Public Relations)

Do you like to drink beer? Check.

OK, I mean, do you really like to drink beer? Oh, ho, ho, ho, now you’re talkin’.

If you do, ApartmentShowcase.com has an event that’s right up your Suds Alley: the 12th Annual Oktoberfest at the Capitol City Brewing Company in the Village at Shirlington.

[ Related: Village at Shirlington Makes You Want to Stay Awhile ]

On Saturday, October 8, from noon to 7 p.m., the Capitol City Brewing Company will host more than 40 breweries serving 120-plus types of beer in tidy, four-ounce samples. Expect a crowd of 8,000-10,000 German, vaguely German and totally non-German beer enthusiasts making their way around the festival’s 92 tents.

Aside from local food vendors (Luna Grill and Diner, Samuel Beckett’s, T.H.A.I. in Shirlington and the bar’s own grub itself), authentic Teutonic vittles like bratwurst will be provided by the Washington Sängerbund.

Now, before you go getting all bent out of shape, there doesn’t appear to be any truth to the Internet rumor that Rammstein or the Scorpions will be making guest appearances at Oktoberfest. To be honest, I hope the Scorps don’t show up in Shirlington, because the last thing I would want to hear when drinking a four-ounce microbrew is Rudolf Schenker warbling about Gorky Park and the wind of change.

I’ve been notified that German music will be pumped into the festival by way of speakers. So, you’ll be fine.

Now, it’s free to attend this event, but it costs $25 to drink the malted barley and hops wares. The $25 will get you a wristband, tasting glass and 10 drink tickets. For all you serious guzzlers out there, you can buy additional drink tickets for a dollar each, but you’ll need to purchase five of them at a time. Taps shut off at 6 p.m., so you better get there at a decent hour.

[ Related: Celebrate the Good Olde Days at the Maryland Renaissance Festival ]

The Capitol City Brewing Company is a pretty classy place, with the downtown location opening in 1992 as the capital’s first brewpub since prohibition. That’s right, they brew their own beer. Better yet, these days the only place they brew beer is at Shirlington. With the recent closure of the Postal Square brewpub in Capitol Hill, Shirlington is the only other Capitol City Brewing Company location.

The level of anticipation for Oktoberfest is so high that the restaurant’s site is counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds to the event, so it must be a big deal. They claim it’s the area’s largest Oktoberfest beer festival, so it probably is.

Oktoberfest is conveniently located at the Village at Shirlington in Arlington, so find a designated driver, come on down here and enjoy yourself.

Heck, while wandering around this tidy little village, you may think about pulling up stakes and staying awhile.

It's what's for dinner: With its authentic Tex-Mex menu, Guapo's is a popular spot in The Village at Shirlington. (Google)

“With its established café culture, live theater and pedestrian promenade, Shirlington has become the arts and entertainment capital of Arlington,” raves the Arlington Economic Development website.

The reason for this rousing description is undoubtedly The Village at Shirlington, a collection of restaurants and other attention-getters nestled in and around Campbell Avenue. Not really a mall or plaza, the Village at Shirlington combines elements of the two, skipping most of the retail in favor of restaurants and service-oriented businesses, while adding both a silver screen and live theater to the mix – and even a library – to make it a different beast altogether.

There are many reasons to shop, play and – if you favor the élan enough – rent an apartment in Shirlington. If you’re hungry and need groceries, you can hit Harris Teeter, famous for being both a Harris and a Teeter. If you’re hankering to check out the latest spy thriller, political/sociological work, or even a classic John Steinbeck novel, you can walk over to the Shirlington Library, which, coincidentally, shares a building with the Signature Theatre.

[ Related: Shirlington's Signature Theatre Takes Lead Role in Area Arts Scene ]

In its new digs since 2007, Signature Theatre is a Tony Award-winning, nonprofit professional theater with a mission to produce contemporary musicals and plays, along with putting a different spin on classic musicals. The village also houses the Synetic Family Theater. For the lazy among us, or for those who want their action just like you see it on TV – only bigger and louder – I give you AMC Loews Shirlington 7, where you can find all the “entertainment” that Hollywood can feed you.

Food, that’s a good segue into restaurants and cafés, what Shirlington really flouts. There are plenty of places to eat, including quite a few where you can drink beer, wine and spirits to boot. For family fare, we’ve got retro diner Johnny Rockets, the redundantly named Bistro Bistro, Mexican food served up by Guapo’s (the latter two can get a tad pricey) and T.H.A.I. in Shirlington, which if you couldn’t guess, offers Peruvian delicacies from the remotest Andes … Thai food, they serve Thai food. Thought you’d get the joke. I know, I know, you don’t give a horse’s behind about my humor or anything else I scribble. You just wanna know where you can throw a few back and get your flirt on.

[ Related: Arlington: Hundreds of Shops, Restaurants to Entice the Renter ]

All right, the Village at Shirlington offers the Capitol City Brewing Company, a small, District-based franchise with three restaurants. Those in town should feel a bit lucky here, because now that the one in Baltimore shuttered its doors, the Shirlington location is the only one outside Washington, D.C., borders.

I’ve eaten at the downtown location more than once, and it’s a fun place that brews its own beer. Amber Waves Ale is a tasty one. A number of places at the village serve alcohol, but I doubt many have that Capitol City atmosphere.

But patron, beware. Soak up too much of that atmosphere and you might awaken the next day realizing those goggles of lore really do exist and that special someone you met there has to go … now!

The Village at Shirlington also features a spa, a Pilates/yoga studio and Edge Health & Fitness, a private training studio “in which only trainers & their respective clients work together.” Plus, there are a few boutique stores as well, including Mill End Shops, the oldest locally owned and operated custom decorating shop in the area, and Dogma Bakery & Boutique, which bakes healthy, all-natural pet treats daily and has a plentiful supply of specialty items for your pooch or pussycat.

All in all, the Shirlington neighborhood is a great reason to make your move to Arlington.

Acting up: The Signature, which looms strikingly on Campbell Avenue, offers a variety of productions but places conspicuous emphasis on classic musicals. (Google)

Signature Theatre sure had humble beginnings – literally.

What is now a firmly established theatrical venue used to produce musicals in a converted auto garage. Since 2007, they’ve shared a building with the Shirlington Library at The Village at Shirlington shopping center in Arlington and regularly draw 80,000 patrons each season, with nary a customer asking for a tune-up or an oil change.

[ Related: The Arts Take Center Stage in Fredericksburg ]

“Today, Signature Theatre broadens and brightens the region’s cultural landscape with its bold productions of challenging new and established works.” Sounds a little like what we’re doing here at the Apartment Showcase blog: broadening and brightening the region’s cultural landscape while showing you where you can rent a home.

What? I’m full of it? Well, I never! OK, but you can’t say we aren’t providing pertinent information and, at the very least, are kinda sorta entertaining you … a little? Please? You’re breaking my heart here!

OK, I snapped out of that compliment-fishing expedition, and now we can concentrate on why you seem to like Signature Theatre better than my writing.

Signature Theatre is very decorated, having received 276 Helen Hayes Award nominations and corralling 70 of the awards themselves. After two decades of productions, last year Signature even won the biggie for a venue its size, the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Currently showing at the Signature is “Walter Cronkite Is Dead,” while a little later in the calendar comes “Sunset Boulevard” and “Side By Side By Sondheim.” This last musical is particularly apt, as the Signature prides itself on its Stephen Sondheim productions.

[ Related: Forget Factories ... Rockville Gets to the Art of the Matter ]

Wanna try your hand at acting or singing? Signature Theatre features the Signature School, which offers a variety of classes in acting, singing and dance. The classes are open to students of all ages and experience levels. So don’t worry, a bunch of other people will look just as silly as you will.

The Signature also features Signature in the Schools. Founded in 1995, the program, according to its website, “uses theatre to open minds and broaden the viewpoints of local teens while engaging them in a positive and creative experience.” Lofty goals to be sure. Pay a visit to Shirlington’s premier theatrical venue at:

Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave.
Arlington, VA 22206

The Village at Shirlington is very theater-friendly, as it offers drama nerds, er, cultured types the Synetic Family Theater.

So if theater is your bag, you may want to think about finding an apartment in Shirlington.