SPOKANE, Wash. – Greekfest is making its 88th return to Spokane from September 19-21, with festivities running daily from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
As per usual, it’s happening at the holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 1703 N Washington Street in Spokane, Washington.
And don’t worry, the traditional Gyros and Baklava are back, with plenty of other foods for you and your family, and now you will know how they make them… Kind of…
Let’s start with the Gyros.
Over the three days of Greekfest each year, organizers tell Nonstop Local they sell about 6,000 Gyros on top of all the other food they make. They offer chicken or a beef / lamb combo and they make it all from scratch, customizing each order.
Greekfest director Matt Foust says the entire process takes about 45 minutes from start to finish, from flavoring the chicken and cooking it, to wrapping up the Gyro and sending it with a hungry Spokanite.
And they are doing that about once every 30 seconds for three days straight, 9 hours at a time.
At any given moment there will be 10-15 workers at the grills helping to serve the community, but the secret according to Foust is their house-made Tzatziki.
They use a special recipe with yogurt from a local Greek woman that Foust says, keeps people showing up.
“We have that special yogurt that we use in addition to that recipe,” said Foust. “It’s just 2nd to none. So yeah, our product has to be good, otherwise we won’t get people coming to Greekfest…”
According to pastry chefs Teresa Kafentzis and Sue Perry, 45 minutes is nothing compared to how long it takes to make the Baklava.
Perry says volunteers start working in June each year to prepare for Greekfest in September.
Organizers tell Nonstop Local they sell about 28,000 pieces of pastry, including 13,000 Baklava each year, and that’s no simple process.
Once they bring in their 1,000 lbs of flower, 500 of walnuts, and 400 of butter, each of those items gets handled about15 times during the preparation process.
And precision is key. The nuts have to be perfectly ground, each layer has to have the perfect thickness, and it has to be cooked at the perfect temperature, otherwise they do not sell it.
Organizers make about 130 trays of Baklava each year, every one of those makes about 100 individual pieces.
For the volunteers behind the scenes, they say there are several reasons it’s worth it.
“When you’re making Baklava and you’re sitting talking to the people who are helping,” said Perry. “It makes it just worthwhile. So, I do it for my faith, I do it for myself, and I do it for my community…”
