Opa! Oakmont Greek Food Festival continues through weekend

Bob Zazac and his daughter Mia braved the elements in order to keep their father-daughter tradition of attending the Oakmont Greek Food Festival alive.

The huge fundraising weekend at Dormition of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church kicked off Friday.

The hot and humid afternoon gave way to thunderstorms shortly before 6 p.m.

It was of no consequence to the North Huntingdon family as they were enjoying moussaka, souzoukakia, pastitso and more at the indoor seating area of the main hall.

“The camaraderie and the food (is why we come here),” Bob Zazac said. “We braved the elements to come here. We just came when it started to storm. We were undercover, and it was beautiful.”

Mia said they have friends who are parishioners of the church and members the band Ta Filarakia, which performers at the festival.

She said the band also plays at the St. Spyirdon Greek Orthodox Church in Monessen, where her family is originally from.

“They are very nice,” Mia said, in between raving about the desserts. She recommend festival attendees arrive early to get a good parking spot.

A family-friendly experience is a big part of the festival. Many of the parishioners have children helping out at various stations.

Kassiani Zeliznik, 11, and her younger sister Phoebe, 10, helped serve fries and prepare pitas for gyros. It was their second year volunteering.

Their father, Ray Zeliznik, one-half of the pork souvlaki grilling team, was very proud to see his girls assist the church event.

“They love it,” he said. “They’ve been talking about it for weeks. Talking about the roles that they wanted to play. Phoebe loves serving the people and Kassiani got a chance to cook a little bit.

“She stepped up to the pitas now and I think she’s at gyros for life.”

Zeliznik’s grilling partner, Panagiotis Mikroudis, had his children, Matthew, 5, and Anna, 3, help out on preparation day Thursday putting drinks in refrigerators.

“They stocked up the coolers — the three shelves that they could reach — with water,” Mikroudis said. “They were really happy doing it. We are one big church family. Everybody wants to help and everybody wants to do what they can, especially this weekend, for the good of the church.

“It’s a long three days and, of course, the week leading up to it, the final prep, everybody’s happy to do it.”

Mikroudis said the secret to a good pork souvlaki is timing, making sure the skewers are rotated properly and removed immediately once fully cooked to avoid burning.

Back by popular demand

The indoor seating in the main hall was one of two things brought back this year by popular demand.

The other was a baklava sundae. It features crumbled baklava, Glen’s vanilla or chocolate custard, or a scoop of each, topped with whipped cream and cherries. The sundae station can be found under the main tent between the bar and the gyro line.

Volunteers also prepared more pastitso this year in response to complaint about it being sold out early last year.

Good start

Event co-chair Andy Gavrilos said he liked how the volunteers responded to opening day, specifically with the crowd rush during the storm and folks seeking shelter. He also thanked all the patrons for coming out.

“We had a good crowd despite the rain around 6 p.m.,” he said. “It definitely hurt us a little bit, but a good crowd since then after the rain stopped. We had a nice crowd earlier in the day.

“Things are going pretty smooth. We have tightened up some of our procedures, getting a little bit more efficient. Trying to keep the lines down is the goal. It’s working so far.

“We thank the local communities for backing us up, coming out and enjoying the fun, enjoying our culture, the music, the food and the dancing.”

There is seating for about 1,300 indoors including the church halls and tents. There’s additional seating in the parking lot and on the lawn.

The festival continues noon-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Food is served until 9 p.m.

More information is available on the event’s Facebook page.