The Greek-American Festival might have fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic this year, but volunteer parishioners are salvaging one of its most popular elements.
That's the food, of course.
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 740 N. Superior St., hosts Taste of Greece between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A drive-thru featuring some of the best-loved and fastest- selling foods at the Greek-American Festival, it's a stripped-down alternative that takes public health precautions surrounding the coronavirus into mind.
Think grape leaves, spanakopita, pastichio, plus pastries like baklava for dessert.
What: Taste of Greece
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 740 N Superior St, Toledo
How much: Dinners, a la carte items and wine, beer and soft drinks from $5 to $18
Information: toledogreekfest.com
Publicity Chairman George Sarantou suggests queuing up early.
“Nothing on the menu is a slow item,” Mr. Sarantou assured The Blade. “It's all stuff that when we have our festivals, we make plenty of and we always run out.”
Taste of Greece is in lieu of the Greek-American Festival, which organizers decided to postpone this year in May. It was a prudent if disappointing decision, Mr. Sarantou said: Their parish had been gearing up for a party, with this year marking the 50th annual Greek-American Festival.
“It would have been a fantastic time,” Mr. Sarantou said.
In the interest of keeping their festival and their food at the front of their neighbor's minds, though, he said organizers opted instead to adapt just a part of the festival to a drive-in model. Vehicles are invited to enter the cathedral grounds off Summit Street, where volunteers will direct them into two lanes and distribute paper menus; patrons will then put in their orders, pay by cash or credit and wait for volunteers to bring them dishes prepared to-go.
No pre-orders are being accepted. Walk-up orders will be taken off Walnut Street.
On the menu this year are two dinners: roast lamb shank for $18 and Greek lemon chicken $10, each served with rice pilaf and Greek green beans. A la carte items are gyros for $8; spanakopita, or spinach pies, served four pieces for $8; dolmathes, or stuffed grape leaves, served 10 for $12; and pastichio, or Greek lasagna, served one piece for $5.
Pastries are another hot seller at the Greek-American Festival. Taste of Greece offers baklava, served four pieces for $12, as well as a sampler for $15. The sampler includes three baklava, one chocolate baklava, two paximathia, two koulourakia, three kourambiethes, and two finikia.
Greek wine, Greek beer, and bottled water and soft drinks will also be available for pick-up: Santa Marina and Santa Laura reds and whites are available each for $15; Pils Hellas is $4 per bottle, with a limit of three per vehicle.
A menu is also available online at toledogreekfest.com.
Harry Dean Proestos is the long-time head chef for the Greek-American Festival.
He said he and his team of volunteers are planning on long hours in the kitchen, preparing dishes that festival patrons look forward to year after year. They've already been hard at work hand-rolling grape leaves for the dolmathes, for example.
He estimated that he and his team of volunteers will this weekend prepare 1,200 pounds of chicken, 800 pounds of lamb, and 620 pounds of green beans.
“I only use fresh beans,” he said of the latter. “Nothing canned.”
He always counts on the chicken dinners to be popular, he said. But since they introduced lamb shank several years ago at the Greek-American Festival, he said that's likewise been increasingly popular.
“Since we started doing the lamb shanks, it keeps on going up and up and up,” he said. “Usually when we have the festival, by Saturday night or early Sunday, I always run out.”
Taste of Greece begins with a prayer and moment of silence to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Father Larry Legakis will also bless the festival grounds, as he would in a typical year.
Like Mr. Sarantou, as well as others in the parish, Mr. Proestos said he was disappointed in the need to postpone this year's festival. As Mr. Proestos points out, this year's patrons will miss out on many usual elements of the cultural festival – the music, the dancing, the shopping, the cathedral tours, language lessons and cooking demonstrations.
But under the circumstances, they're happy to offer just a sampler in Taste of Greece.
And they're excited to return for the anniversary bash in 2021.
First Published September 11, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
