The Outpost in Moorpark opens in The Alley, joins Enegren Brewing in time for Oktoberfest

The Alley in Moorpark feels like family.

It's more than a brewery, restaurant, wine cellar and other businesses along an open-air corridor, tenants say.

One example of that family friendly camaraderie is Enegren Brewing Co.’s Oktoberfest, taking place 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday at The Alley, 330 Zachary St. Across from the microbrewery known for its German lagers, is a new restaurant called The Outpost, which will promote its German items such as pretzels, bratwursts and a German potato salad.

Three Oktoberfest bands — Festmeister Hans and Die Saukerauts, Der Matterhorns and the all-female Ladyhosen — will play polkas. Expect accordions, guitars, drums, tubas and other horns, and plenty of oom-pah music, said Enegren co-owner John Bird.

“We’ve got some of the best performers in Southern California who do this style of music. There will always be people dancing in front of the stage,” said Bird, Enegren’s master of festivities and director of sales.

He said that despite this weekend’s projected drizzle, he expects the music, beer and food will draw up to 2,000 people each day — from as far as San Luis Obispo, San Diego and Arizona.

Another reason The Alley feels like family stems from the brothers and their friends who started Enegren and neighboring businesses.

Bird and Matt and Chris Enegren graduated from Moorpark High School in the early 2000s. The Enegren brothers went to Loyola Marymount University, where they met Joe Nascenzi and created home brew with him in their dorms, Bird said.

Enegren Brewing Co. started brewing its beer in 2011 in Moorpark and moved to The Alley in 2014.

Bird said he and his partners have attended the Oktoberfest in Germany and brought back elements to make Enegren’s festival authentic. He added that no other brewery in Southern California shares Enegren’s focus on making authentic German lagers.

“We get German nationals who come here and say this beer tastes like home," he said. "This is our style, and we do it better than anybody else.”

For the Oktoberfest, Enegren has its Festbier, which is similar to what has been served for the last 50 years at Germany’s Oktoberfest, Bird said. But he added Enegren this weekend will also serve its Oktoberfest Marzen, the style of lager that was historically popular at Oktoberfest before modern times.

Complementing Enegren's beer is the food from the Outpost, which opened in August and succeeded Fire and Vice.

The Outpost is the first restaurant owned by Nick Simpson, 51, who lives next door to Chris Enegren in Moorpark and opened the eatery with Chris’ encouragement.

The Outpost serves pizzas, burgers, spicy chicken sandwiches, various styles of pretzels and bratwursts. Owner Nick Simpson said he plans to add Santa Maria tri-tip to the menu and start outdoor weekend barbecues.

Simpson’s only prior restaurant experience was as a line cook at College Street Deli at Arizona State University, where he graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting.

He went on to have a long career in sports broadcasting, including an internship at KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara and a sports reporter job at KCOY-TV in Santa Maria.

“The chaos of TV, breaking news, fires, sports, deadlines — I think it’s very comparable to restaurants,” Simpson said.  “If you can handle TV, you can do the restaurant business.”

Simpson, who moved to Moorpark in 2016 from Woodland Hills, also worked in real estate.

“I made good money, but hated it,” he said.

The father of two girls, ages 8 and 11, said he's always cooked for his family. Simpson said he loved the idea of starting a restaurant across from Enegren.

“The Alley is a family," Simpson said. "Come down on any given night, and it’s a great family environment.”

He said his food stands out for its simple, clean flavors and fresh ingredients from local farmers markets, stores and farms.

“We make our own Italian sausage for our pizzas,” Simpson said.

Simpson and Bird agree. The Alley is similar to Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, the oceanside district known for its breweries, wineries and galleries in warehouse-like settings.

“The Funk Zone is one of my favorite places,” said Bird, who earned his bachelor’s in film studies in 2008 at UC Santa Barbara and today makes videos promoting Enegren on Instagram.

Dave Mason covers East County for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at dave.mason@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: The Outpost opens, joins neighbor Enegren in Moorpark for Oktoberfest