Greek Festival underway at St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, 2000 Tower Blvd. in Lorain, is in the midst of its annual Greek Festival featuring a variety of different Greek dishes.

“We have been doing this for over 30 years here at the church,” said Annie Peskiris, church board secretary at St. Nicholas. “We have it the weekend after Labor Day, and we sell a ton of Greek food.”

Peskiris said the festival, that started Sept. 6, will continue on Sept. 7 and 8.

“We are going 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and we will do the same for Saturday (Sept. 7),” she said. “The last day is Sunday (Sept. 8), and we will be going noon to 6 p.m.”

Peskiris said the festival offers a variety of food.

“We have our drive-thru set up offering gyros, chicken gyros, french fries, Greek salad, a pastry sampler, rice pudding and baklava (pastry),” she said. “Folks can just drive up for those dishes.

“We also have an area inside where you can get a variety of Greek delicacies like lamb shank, baked Greek chicken, soutzoukakia (Greek meatball), Greek

salad and Greek potatoes. We also have a pastry room for folks.”

Peskiris said the Greek Festival is a large fundraiser for the church.

“It helps with our expenses throughout the year; it’s our big money maker,” she said. “We are a small community of folks, and this helps keep our church going.

“We’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while. We have to start preparations in July, and figuring out how much we are going to order. We then have to start baking a lot of this stuff in August and then freezing it.

“This is something we all do for the love of our church, and we appreciate the tremendous support of the city of Lorain.”

Ron Ricci, of Lorain, was in the drive-thru line buying gyros.

Peskiris said the Greek Festival is a large fundraiser for the church.

“The food is very good,” Ricci said.

“I come every year they do this. The gyros are the best.”

Richard Aukschun, of Avon, was inside the church trying the lamb shank.

“The food is excellent,” Aukschun said. “I’m having the lamb shank with green beans and salad. These guys do a great job.”

ZACHARY SRNIS — THE MORNING JOURNAL Bessie Aslanidis, committee member for the Greek Festival, left, prepares gyros Sept. 6 along with Rev. Michael Gulgas.

ZACHARY SRNIS — THE MORNING JOURNAL Gus Peskiris, a member of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, prepares french fries for the Greek Festival on Sept. 6.