I go every year hungry, and leave reeking of Greek eats: oregano, garlic, lamb and more garlic. The St. Nicholas Greek Festival is one of my favorite festivals and it really should be on your list, too. If anyone knows how to throw a big Greek feast, it’s the parish members and volunteers at the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tacoma. Church volunteers have put on the food festival for 50 years, introducing countless Tacomans to baklava, gyros, melomakarona, koulorakia, dolmades and plenty of other Greek dishes and pastries that many may find unpronounceable, but utterly delicious. Click “read more” to see the details of this year’s festival, which begins Friday. Read more »

The sign is up, the health and liquor inspections have passed and Zara Mediterranean Cuisine is ready to open in downtown Tacoma next Friday, Aug. 19, on Pacific Avenue in the space that Sea Grill vacated in March 2009.

The Mediterranean restaurant will serve what sounds to be straightforward interpretations of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine. What I found most interesting is that the restaurants will serve shawarma. What’s that? A rotating tower of meat slowly cooked on a vertical grill. Shawarma is the Arabic name for the vertically roasted meat dish. Read more »

TNT staffers have returned to the newsroom reeking of Greek.
It was a challenge, but we woofed down double orders of calamari with scordalia dip, gyros, souvlakia, Greek fries, dolmathes and tiropites. Oh, and don’t forget the pastries and Greek coffee.
There are a few ways to eat around the The 47th annual Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Church. Click “more” for our insider tips on navigating the food festival.

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