Golden anniversary: All Saints Greek Orthodox Church’s festival returns for 50th year with five days of food, music, and family fun

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Liz Miller of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church displays a tray of finikia, a cookie made with honey, walnuts, lemon and flour, that is one of several pastries and desserts that will be available at the 50th annual Greek Food Festival held from June 3-7.

Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

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A photo from the early years of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church annual Greek Food Festival. From left are Sam Anthou, Frank Andronas and John Pankas.

Courtesy All Saints Greek Orthodox Church

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A 1979 photo of the food line at the Greek Food Festival, which is celebrating its 50th year. The festival was originally held at the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church on Blaine Avenue in Canonsburg, behind Sarris Candies, before the church moved to its current location on West McMurray Road in North Strabane Township nearly three decades ago.

Courtesy of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church

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Greek dancers have provided entertainment for All Saints Greek Orthodox Church’s Greek Food Festival for decades.

Courtesy of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church

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Members of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church finish up a morning spent making finikia for the 50th annual Greek Food Festival, which will be held from June 3-7.

Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

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One of Washington County’s most beloved cultural celebrations is marking a significant milestone.

All Saints Greek Orthodox Church in North Strabane Township will host its 50th Greek Food Festival from June 3-7.

And, opa! What a celebration it will be!

More than 35,000 food enthusiasts are expected to pack the gold-domed church in North Strabane Township to devour the famed and authentic, homemade Greek food, take in traditional dance performances and music, and tour the church.

“This is a milestone for us, for sure. We’re so honored and grateful for our community, which continues to support us,” said Zachary Loutsion, 26, the church’s activities and social media director and a social studies teacher at Canon-McMillan Middle School who has taken up the mantle from generations that preceded him to help make sure the festival continues.

Rewind 50 years, and the festival – the brainchild of the late Manual Johns and Bill Pihiou – had humble beginnings. The first festival was held in 1974 at the church’s former location on Blaine Avenue in Canonsburg and drew hundreds in those early years.

In 1995, the church moved to its current location at 601 West McMurray Road. And each year since those first plates of souvlakia were served, the festival has grown.

“Initially, it was kind of like our own parishioners and some local people in the Canonsburg area came, but as the years progressed, you’d see more and more people from the greater Pittsburgh area and other places coming,” said Loutsion. “It’s amazing to see where it started and where it is now.”

While the venue and crowd size has changed, one thing has remained the same: the great food.

Ahhh, baklava….

Arguably the biggest festival draw is the enormous food spread, which is prepared by All Saints congregation members – and is based on generations-old family recipes.

“A lot of recipes are the original recipes that were made from day one. We’ve adapted some of our recipes, but they have been pretty much consistent and the same since we started,” said Loutsion.

Expect dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita (filo layers filled with spinach and feta), pastitsio (layered macaroni and ground beef with cream sauce), and tiropita (a triangular shaped cheese-filled puff pastry).

Greek sweets include flaky baklava (nuts and spices layered in phyllo with honey syrup), kourambiedes (butter cookies with toasted almonds topped with powdered sugar), loukoumades (hot honey puffs) and finikia (cookies made with honey, walnuts, lemon juice and sugar).

Soft drinks, ouzo, beer, wine and coffee will be available to refresh those strolling the food offerings.

Preparations start in January, with more than 100 volunteers gathering in the parish hall regularly to cook and bake the authentic Greek dishes that appear on the ever-expanding menu.

Among them is longtime co-chairwoman Becky Pihiou, who has played a significant role in the festival for more than 40 years and now oversees the cooking and baking. She also served as a Greek dance instructor until 2015, after 30 years in the role.

“I love doing this, I just really enjoy it. For me, over the years, it’s become something I do for my church, it’s something I can give back to my church. I can give my talent back to the church and help make my church flourish,” said Pihiou.

She credits the late Maureen Kusturiss, who served as chairperson with her husband, Michael, for “teaching me everything I know.”

“She had all the recipes memorized, in her head, and I followed her around and learned what it took to pull this off,” said Pihou.

Pulling it off, it turns out, is a monumental task.

Consider: for this year’s festival, volunteers have rolled over 700 pounds of meat, mixed with rice, onion and lemon to make thousands of dolmades – possibly the most popular item on the menu – and cooked nearly 900 pounds of meat sauces for pastitsio and other dishes.

“We go through 900 pounds of spinach to make the spinach pie – we made around 235 pans of it – and for the cheese pie and spinach pie, we’re probably going through 300 pounds of feta,” said Pihiou. “We used to crumble the feta ourselves, but it’s hard on the hands. We probably go through 700 pounds of filo for baking and desserts. We made 120 pans of Greek lasagna. It takes two Sundays to do that, boiling noodles, moving the pots. Some days, it’s like, ‘is this over with yet?’ but it’s worth every minute of it.”

The menu has nearly doubled over the years to include about 30 items.

Pihiou said the menu includes vegetarian items and that the festival is “trying to serve something to meet everyone’s dietary needs.”

New this year is saganaki, a Greek fried cheese.

“It will be in the upper tent. We’re also moving gyros into the upper tent, along with french fries, and our feta fries, and we’re adding Greek coffee,” said Loutsion. “We have Yiayia’s baklava sundae, with Sarris ice cream and our baklava crumbles. We’re trying to utilize our space as much as possible.”

Loutsion said the early days of the festival used to be busy during lunch and dinner, but in recent years, the festival has been consistently busy, for all five days.

“There’s really no such thing as downtime anymore. We used to have a gap between lunch and dinner where it wasn’t as busy, but it’s consistently busy Monday through Friday from open to close,” said Loutsion.

The festival will offer church tours at least twice a day (at 1 and 6 p.m.), hosted by church members who will share the history of the church and explain the iconography in the church.

A half-dozen vendors will be selling goods.

Visitors can rest assured their money is going to a good cause: The festival is expected to raise about $300,000, which will be used for church expenses and community outreach projects.

On Friday, three days before the festival, Pihiou was assessing the dishes that filled the church freezers to make sure there was enough to feed the anticipated crowds.

“We have a walk-in freezer that you can’t even walk in right now and two upright, double-door freezers that are filled to the gill. I think we’re good,” said Pihiou. “We keep growing, and I don’t know how much more we can grow because of room. There is only so much parking and so much seating, but it’s a good problem to have.”

The affair is symbolized by a generosity that has made this nearly 100-year-old parish a vibrant and prosperous center for Greek natives and American-born generations of Greeks who live here and in the surrounding area.

“I think our growth comes with the quality of the food and our friendliness that we show toward our friends and the people in the community who come and support us. Whenever we get a chance, we go out and talk to the people who come. We welcome everyone.”

The All Saints Greek Orthodox Church Greek Food Festival will be held from June 3 through June 7 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, with the upper tent (with gyros, lamb burgers, fries, and other items) open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Online orders can be placed from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visit AllSaintsCBG.org.