2023 is the 63rd annual Pensacola Greek Festival with the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and it…read moreis a terrific event! They offer a variety of family friendly activities to keep you entertained during your visit and the food, OPA!! They offer 20 minute church tours for an insight into the history, architecture, music and iconography of the Greek Orthodox Church, live Greek bouzouki music, Greek Dancing, and more.
It's the first, and highly anticipated, time back since 2019 due to COVID and I saw some very happy faces there and mine was one of them. I'm a big Greek cuisine fan so I had an good assortment of fantasic dishes. The Spanakopita (spinach and cheese), and dolmades were outstanding but one of my absolute faves is Pastitsio, which is Greece's answer to Italian Lasagna with layers of pasta, a rich cinnamon spiked red wine meat sauce, topped with a thick layer of cheese sauce that was crazy good. Of course other offerings include lamb shanks, gyros, souvlaki, salads, and more.
They did however put out a "Menu Alert" which in part stated:
"We know there are going to be some favorites missing from the menu this year and to those that are heartbroken, we are too. There have been so many changes over the last four years in both our community and with the supply chain, that we just weren't capable of providing certain things we have in the past. If your favorite isn't on the menu this year, that doesn't mean it won't be back next year, it just means you might find a new favorite this year!"
Okay, I don't know what those "favorites" were but the extensive menu they had was fantastic.
There's some amazing sweets too, with 3 kinds of baklava, ergolaves, chocolate kok, kantaifi, my honey's fave cookies, kourambiethes, and I had Napoleon, which is thin layers of pastry, cream and a topping of cocoa, vanilla icing or almond fondant. We also had something for the first time "pasta" which is layers of shredded filo pastry and honey, with cold custard filling and almonds, it was amazing. The church members come together to cook all this food, which is Herculean undertaking and I spoke to a few of those church ladies who were excited to see the festival return.
Admission is free and the lines move quickly and Greek beer and wines are available that pair wonderfully with the fabulous food. There's free parking around the event but free shuttles also run most of the day from the Blue Wahoos stadium that's only 5 minutes away.
Bottom line: This is fabulous event that everyone should make plans to enjoy! Highly recommended!!! OPA!
https://pensacolagreekfestival.com/
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