Springfield Greek festival adds new menu items for 2025 Glendi

SPRINGFIELD – There is big news for food lovers attending Glendi 2025 this weekend on the grounds of the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Springfield.

Two new dishes, Greek lemon potatoes and tiropita puffs, have been added to the menu this year for new and returning “partygoers” — in Greek, “glendi” means party.

“We went through several recipes and taste tests before coming up with just the right flavor for the Greek lemon potatoes, which are called patates lemonates in Greek,” said Xenophon Beake, senior member of the Glendi Management Team, in an interview with The Republican.

Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, typical Greek lemon potatoes are roasted in a sauce made of lemon juice, broth, olive oil, garlic, and herbs.

“Traditionally many Greek families would serve lemon potatoes as part of the Sunday meal or at celebrations. We did in our house when I was growing up,” Beake, who is 91, said.

Tiropita — made with layers of buttery phyllo and filled with a cheese-egg mixture — has been replaced on the menu by tiropita puffs.

“The tiropita were cut into squares like moussaka, but we felt it was time to make a change to these pie-like treats and switched to the puffs which are several cheeses wrapped in phyllo,” Beake said.

The Greek lemon potatoes will be served only on Friday, but the tiropita puffs will be available all three days.

Greek cuisine was recently named the best in the world for 2024-2025 by TasteAtlas, scoring 4.6 out of 5 from 477,287 user ratings across 15,478 dishes, with souvlaki and gyros listed as the top Greek foods — both of which are on the Glendi menu.

“I’ve gone to Greece and never had a bad meal there or here in the United States, especially when visiting historic Greektown in Chicago,” Beake said.

The many choices on the Glendi menu this year include:

• Loukoumathes: Hot-puffed, deep-fried pastry with honey syrup and cinnamon;
• Diples: Hand-wrapped dough in a honey syrup topped with sesame seeds and nuts;
• Kourabiethes: Shortbread butter cookies with powdered sugar
• Koulourakia: Traditional Greek cookie, plain or with sesame seeds
• Sweet breads: Sold by the loaf at the Pastry Booth
• Baklava: Layers of phyllo dough filled with nuts and spices and covered in syrup
• Patsitsio: A Greek lasagna with layers of macaroni and beef baked in bechamel sauce with a la carte items to create your own masterpiece
• Spanakopita: Feta cheese with spinach layered in phyllo dough with a la carte items to create your own masterpiece
• Moussaka: A layered casserole of seasoned beef and eggplant with a bechamel sauce topping with a la carte items to create your own masterpiece
• Lamb shank: Available on Saturday with leftovers on Sunday if any, served with Orzo, Greek salad and roll
• Gyros: Made with seasoned beef and lamb, with tomatoes, onions and tzatziki sauce in a pita pocket, served either with rice pilaf or salad or just the wrap served in the outdoor tent
• Dolmathes: Stuffed meatless grape leaves
• Souvlaki: Grilled lamb, chicken or pork kabobs with a la carte items to create your own masterpiece
• Greek sampler: Skewer of souvlaki, rice pilaf, choice of spanakopita or tiropita puffs, and a Greek salad and green beans
• Lentil soup: Served with a roll and salad on Friday with leftovers on Saturday.

A fresh baked fish dinner will be served on Friday, with any leftovers sold on Saturday.

In addition to all the food, there also will be a beer garden.

Entertainment for the weekend includes live Greek music provided by Hellenic Express; Greek folk dancing performed by the Glendi Dancers, decked out in traditional Greek costumes; and the Cretan Dancers and Small Planet Dancers. Greek imports also will be available for sale, and there will be a boutique, as well as an “agora,” or a Greek marketplace and an emporium.

The emporium is run as a fundraiser by the Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society chapter at the cathedral. The philanthropic arm of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America — philoptochos means “friends of the poor” — has 90 years of experience helping people in need through fundraising and charitable programs. At Glendi, they will be selling donated items such as clothing and other household items to raise money for their various assistance programs.

Prior to Glendi’s official start on Friday, there will be a flag-raising ceremony on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. on the steps of Springfield City Hall with Mayor Domenic Sarno and other dignitaries to kick off the beginning of Glendi.

During a special ceremony on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Greek Cultural Center, there will be a presentation by officials of Sailing for Veterans out of Provincetown to recognize Michael Biakis. The war hero, who lived in East Springfield and served as a communicant at the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, died on Jan. 19, 1945, when his plane went down into the North Sea during a snowstorm while on a training mission.

On the religious and cultural side, Rev. Fr. Dionysios Koulianos will be giving tours of the chapel on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. and tours of the cathedral on Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. Explanations about the buildings and the extensive artwork located inside, including mosaics and Byzantine stained glass, as well as an introduction to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, will be offered as part of the tour. The tour returns after construction was done to repair the cathedral’s bell tower, hit by lightning in 2023.

Admission to the Glendi fundraiser is $2, which includes the Glendi Big Raffle Ticket. You can also purchase a book of six tickets for $10. Top prizes, among several others, include two awards of $2,000 each.

Credit cards and cash are both accepted at the festival.

Glendi hours are 5-10 p.m. on Friday, noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, go online to stgeorgecath.org/glendi or call 413-737-1496.