Frank and Karen Sansosti have been married for 50 years, since the Oakmont Greek Food Festival has existed and almost since they attended.
The appeal is for the couple from North Huntingdon.
“The food,” Frank said, Sansosti. No we eat lamb every day. “
Whether it’s for the food, the ambiance, or the love of a smart grid meeting, other people from the Alle-Kiski Valley and far afield flock to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos on Washington Avenue each June to take inventory of the Mediterranean. Favorites.
The church celebrates the 50th anniversary of the feast from Friday to Sunday. Lunch is served from 11 a. m. to 9 p. m. every day, with dancing and music until 11 p. m.
It has been hampered over the years by power outages, tornadoes and covid-19 (organizers changed the occasion in 2020 and 2021 to comply with public fitness rules), but the display has continued.
Today it is more powerful than ever.
Friday is the busiest day in the festival’s history, according to event co-chair Chris Doas, and Saturday is shaping up to be another full stage.
“It just helps keep growing,” Doas said. We expect this year to be bigger than last year. “
Sunday will close out this annual Oakmont culture with a full day of lamb carving for gyros, dancing, and, for the first time, a traveling fiddler.
Andy Gavrilos, who has presided over or co-chaired about 35 festivals, adding this year’s, said the church sells about 10,000 gyros, 15,000 spinach pies and 30,000 pies a year.
“We’re lucky that local communities are the way they are,” Gavrilos said. “People keep coming back. “
Organizing this occasion is a simple task.
A committee of about 25 volunteers and parishioners begins making plans in January, and it’s in September that cleaning and accounting are complete, according to Gavrilos. At any given time during the 3 days of the festival, there are at least 50 volunteers on site.
The festival has evolved in many tactics over the years.
For example, volunteers would perch near a single fryer to make honey balls with their hands. Since then, the church has purchased a machine to perform that task, and many more fryers.
In 1995, the demand for cakes was so great that organizers moved the operation to the Riverside Landings Event Center across the street. The ballroom adjacent to the church is used for an a la carte dining room in Los Angeles, where chicken Alexis is served, topped with a glos of fruit and honey. Angelesze, is the maximum Los Angeles dish of the populos.
It is a recipe made and named in honor of Doas’s grandmother, Mary Alexis, who passed away 20 years ago. The “veterans” still have their fingerprints all over the event, Gavrilos noted, and most of the profits come from the event’s founders, with the exception of a few adjustments.
But the occasion revolves around the gyroscopic tent, where volunteers relentlessly shave rotating pieces of lamb and festival-goers show the same determination to cut them.
The tent is supported by steel beams bolted to the ground, a testament to the sustainability of the festival.
On Saturday afternoon, Chloe Davis sat down with her mother, Melissa, and a few friends to eat at the store. The organization likes to participate in all the Greek food festivals in the area. Next week, Chloé, from North Huntingdon, heads to Greece with her sister, where she will take a cooking class.
“I would say that going there made me go to Greece,” Chloe said.
For Doas, it’s all about the joy of hosting the festival.
“We’re moving forward in the history of our church,” Doas said. “It’s fantastic to share our food, our culture, our heritage and be proud of it. “
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