Tacoma’s Greek Festival is this weekend, and it’s your only shot to try these Greek delicacies

Tacoma’s biggest Greek restaurant is so big, it spans an entire church basement, a dining tent the size of a parking lot and an upstairs room of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood. And it’s open only for three days.

It’s the Tacoma Greek Festival, of course, and it’s an epic eating event attended by thousands.

That sprawling pop-up restaurant, open only from Friday (Oct. 5) through Sunday, features food made by an army of church volunteers.

Diners will find Greek nibbles never found on any Greek restaurant menu here.

The festival will have just a few changes to the dining protocol this year, said festival chair Bill Samaras.

The biggest change is an addition. In previous years, the only way to eat the plated dinners was to buy a ticket for the table-seated meals, which are a bit of a time commitment. Diners who prefer to wander and graze their way through the dining tent never got to sample the dishes offered in the plated meals, but that’s changing this year.

“The seated meals are a big deal for families. They come down from Seattle. We don’t want to disrupt that, but we don’t want others to miss out,” said Samaras.

From the same kitchen counter window where diners buy a la carte servings of cheese-stuffed turnovers and stuffed grape leaves, diners now will be able to pick up a la carte dishes of chicken, fish (Friday and Saturday only), rice pilaf and braised green beans.

Of course, there’s still the big dining tent with multiple eating options, the pastry and coffee shop in the dining tent and the upstairs bakery where attendees can purchase packaged pastries.

This year’s army of volunteers spent five months preparing for the event. While perishable foods are made just ahead of the festival, items that can be frozen are made as early as May.

Pastry making is as prolific as a wholesale production bakery, judging by the numbers.

Sally Hallis, a church volunteer who has helped coordinate the festival’s food for decades, keeps track of pastry production. This year, she counted 5,264 paximathia (biscotti), 5,212 melomakarona (honey-walnut cookies), 316 individually-sold pans of baklava, 11,520 individual wedges of baklava, 25 pans of ouzo cake and 600 loaves of tsoureki bread — all made by church volunteers.

To make all of that, the church purchased 1,230 pounds of butter, 69 gallons of whole milk, 2,700 eggs, 912 pounds of phyllo dough, 1,600 pounds of flour, 250 pounds of powdered sugar, 1,000 pounds granulated sugar and 450 pounds of walnuts.

Take a moment to absorb that.

Beyond food, the event is a celebration of all kinds of Greek culture. Dancers from the church will perform throughout the event and church tours will be given all weekend, allowing attendees to view the the church’s elaborate iconography that was painted on the 35-feet-tall dome in 2010.

Here’s what to expect at the festival:

HOW TO DINE

Buy tokens: To keep lines moving, a token system is used for purchasing food in the dining tent. Exchange cash or credit for tokens in the dining tent. Booths aren’t equipped to make change.

Dining tent: This option is well-suited for grazers. Use tokens to purchase a la carte food items from stands. Those stands serve gyro sandwiches with tzatziki, tomatoes and onions ($7), fried calamari with a garlic-potato skordalia dip ($7), Greek fries with feta ($5), Greek salad with feta ($5), skewers of marinated pork souvlaki ($6), Greek sausages called loukaniko ($6) and fresh-fried Greek doughnuts with a honey syrup called loukoumades ($4).

Look for new additions, hot dogs ($3) and popcorn ($2), in the dining tent.

Beverages: Back of the dining tent. Soda or water ($2), Greek beer ($5) and Greek wine ($6 glass/$20 bottle). Greek soda ($4) and domestic beer ($4) also available.

Tent coffee/bake shop: Save your tokens for a sweet finish at the coffee shop in the dining tent. American ($2) or Greek coffee ($3), tea ($2) and 11 a la carte pastry choices. There will be baklava ($3), the honey-soaked walnut cookies called melomakarona ($1), Greek biscotti called paximathia ($1), slices of lemon cake soaked in Ouzo ($3), the jiggly custard cake topped with phyllo called galaktoboureko ($3) and the church’s famous Greek chocolate mousse and biscuit dessert called mosaiko ($3).

Kitchen window: Use tokens to purchase cheese turnovers called tyropitakia ($3), stuffed grapes leaves called dolmathes ($3), chicken ($4), fish ($4), rice pilaf ($3) or braised green beans ($3). On Sunday, spanokopita also will be sold ($4).

Plated meals: Continuous seating available in the downstairs dining room. Buy a meal ticket at the register by the back door with cash, card or tokens.

Plated dinners are multi-course with Greek salad, braised green beans, rice pilaf, bread, coffee or tea and a choice of meat. Chicken is served all three days, baked white fish is served Friday and Saturday and lamb is served Sunday. Table service is offered. Full dinners are $14 with smaller portioned meals available for $7. A Friday business lunch special is $10.

Upstairs bakery: Find take-home boxes, trays and bags of pastries and bread. Small ($14) and large ($24) trays of baklava, trays of the powdered sugar-topped cookies called kourambiethes ($14), boxes of melomakarona ($12), paximathia ($6) and koulourakia butter cookies twisted into the shape of a rope ($6). Also find the Greek bread ($6) and variety packs ($14).

SEE AND DO

Greek deli: Purchase olive oil, chocolate, herbs and packaged deli items in the dining tent.

Greek dancing in the dining tent: 5, 7 and 8:30 p.m. Friday; 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday; 1, 3 and 5 p.m. Sunday.

Church tours: Noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday.

Tacoma Greek Festival 2018

Where: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 1523 S. Yakima Ave., Tacoma

Information: 253-272-0466; stnicholastacoma.org/greekfestival

When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday

Benefitting: Care Net of Puget Sound

Admission: Free

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 12:00 PM.