Here’s what you can expect from the Tacoma Greek Festival this year – a Greek pastry bake sale. Order now

An army of volunteers once again has piled this summer into the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma. The church volunteers are armed with gallons of honey syrup and thousands of sheets of phyllo dough. And they have baking to do. Lots of baking. 

While church volunteers are doing what they do best – creating Greek pastries from scratch – the annual in-person epic Greek Festival, that St. Nicholas and its church members host every year, has been put on pause for a second year in a row. 

There won’t be an in-person festival with the Greek dancers, the pastries and thousands of gyro sandwiches, but here’s something almost as good: a Greek pastry pickup. 

“We are going to sell Greek pastries to the public this year. We’ll offer some of the most popular pastries we sell at the festival, made exactly the same way at the St. Nicholas kitchen.  We’ve been baking for over a month now,” explained longtime event chairperson Bill Samaras. 

“We’re calling this the “St. Nicholas Tacoma Greek Bake Sale,” he said. 

How it works is: Diners order online and then visit the church anytime during the usual festival weekend in October. Pick up those pastries between 12 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1 and Saturday, Oct. 2 or 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3. All orders must be prepaid. Orders only can be purchased through the website. There won’t be pastry available at the church for purchase.  

The bake sale link is live now, but expect the stock might shrink and expand, depending on demand. “There is a possibility we’ll continue to sell past Oct 1, 2, 3,” said Samaras. “We’ll see how it goes.” 

Listed on the site for sale right now are the church’s famous baklava in orders of 6, 12 and 30 ($9/$15/$25), plus paximathia ($8 a dozen), koulourakia ($8 a dozen) and kourambiethes in orders of 6 or 12 ($9 or $15). For savory pastries, there are trays of spanakopita ($15) and tiropita ($15). 

I already ordered mine. Have you ordered yours? Get on it! 

TACOMA GREEK FESTIVAL BAKE SALE 

PICKUP AT: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 1523 S. Yakima Ave., Tacoma

PICKUP TIMES: 12 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1 and Saturday, Oct. 2 or 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3

BAKE SALE LINK: https://st-nicholas-greek-orthodox-church.square.site/

WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO: https://stnicholastacoma.org/
ORDERS MUST BE: Pre-paid through the website only. There won’t be any pastries on site at the church for sale. Only orders that are pre-paid can be picked up.