Oakmont Greek Food Festival continues this weekend with drive-thru format, same recipes

Just about everything has changed but the recipes at the Oakmont Greek Food Festival this year.

Gone are the lines for honey balls and the honey balls themselves as organizers went with a limited menu and drive-thru operations due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Traditional music and dancing in the parking lot was exchanged for yellow rope and thin traffic cones funneling motorists in and out of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church site at 12 Washington Ave.

What’s strong as ever is the customer and volunteer support for the three-day festival that kicked off Friday.

“The community’s responded unbelievably,” event co-chair Andy Gavrilos said. “They’ve really supported us, exceeded our expectations. We had a few bumps early on. We may run out of food a little bit here tonight, but we’re in the process of purchasing more to get through the next two days.”

Volunteers wore masks and adhered to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines while taking orders and packing food for the many motorists who came through on opening day.

“We’ve been coming down here every year for it,” said Chris Moretti of Tarentum. “The food’s terrific. I knew it was going to be different (with the) drive-thru and everything, but it seems like they’ve done a good job so far. If you were standing in line to go in anyways you’d be waiting about the same time. Everybody’s been real nice, real helpful.”

Volunteers said the average wait time to get food was between five and eight minutes with the longest wait being 15 minutes.

Moretti and his friend, Pete Nugent of Tarentum, picked up some gyros and pork suvlaki.

“It seems to be working pretty well,” Nugent said of getting Greek to-go. “Pretty seamless execution on their end. Nothing really out of the ordinary … Whatever’s safest and generates the most revenue for them. This is a big revenue generator for them. If they can serve more people being in tents, serve more people being in tents.”

Lori Kutch of Hoboken, N.J., was in town visiting parents in Oakmont.

“It’s a great idea and it’s great to see everybody supporting it,” Kutch said about the drive-thru. “You have to be patient with everything and accept that things don’t go as planned.”

Kutch said she misses the dancing and the music, but was happy the festival went on. Her father, John Singer, said service was quicker than previous years.

“It’s the first time I’ve every seen something like this,” he said. “They have a lot of workers, too. Before you were tripping over everybody.”

Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies are assisting with with traffic control.

Patrons turned on to Washington Avenue from either Allegheny Avenue or Allegheny River Boulevard, and pulled into the church parking lot where six order takers await.

Volunteer and church IT specialist Lauren Michaels said folks give their name, description of their vehicle along with their orders, which are then sent electronically to a food preparation tent where meals are packaged and brought out to the vehicles.

Payment is done via credit or debit card.

Patrons then exit onto California Avenue, which was made one-way to avoid traffic jams.

Pastries come pre-packed with two finikia, two walnut baklavas, one apricot baklava, kataifi (shredded phyllo with ground walnuts), and kourambiethes or cookies.

Dinners were reduced to chicken alexis with rice pilaf, souzoukakia (meatballs), pork suvlaki over rice and traditional gyros with lettuce, tomato and tzatziki sauce on the side.

Grape leaves, spanakopita — spinach pies — and koulourakia were also available.

Volunteers said they sold 1,000 spinach pie pieces and about 300 pastry packs Friday.

“I think it was a bigger turnout than we expected,” said co-chair Chris Doas. “We really didn’t know what to expect. This is all new. The only thing that didn’t change was the recipes. I just want to thank everybody for all their support. We really appreciate it.”

The festival continues 2-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

More information is available at dormitionpgh.org or by calling 412-828-4144.