I checked out the Las Vegas Greek Food Festival on Saturday afternoon.
This was my first visit to the Saint John the Baptist parish edifice, and I was totally surprised by the expanse of the property. This church ground is total Vegas in its own way. It's out in the once extreme desert southwest of the city but boasts fountains and grassy acreage where the festival takes place. Tree-filled neighborhoods have grown around the church's landscape, too. It's an Arcadian-ish twist 
from three miles east – the glitzy-at-times Strip and the sere industrial accumulation on its flank.
A vantage point from Vegas' main Greek Orthodox church east down Hacienda has one standing next to a replica of a Constantinople (yes, now Istanbul) basilica within view of a monumental pyramid – the Luxor. And Caesars Palace, too. It's a modern slice of the Ancient World in diorama vision.
The Greek Food Festival grounds were ringed by tented concessions offering Hellenic tastes from the ubiquitous gyro to more homemade fare like pastitsio – Greek lasagna spiced with aromatics like cinnamon and sauced with creamy bechamel sauce rather than bound with more Italian-style mozzarella cheese.
It was an insurmountable challenge in terms of stomach and budget capacity
to dine at all the Greek Food Festival's booths. I considered a $2 spanokopita for a snack but went with a full Greek combo meal for $12. This plate held lamb (chicken was the other choice) meat, savory lemon rice, a cut of pastitsio, a lamb and rice-stuffed grape leaf and some salad.
A lamb sandwich called to me after a combo ... It would have been another $7 and a substantial additional meal. It was hot in the sun, an early September heat spike with no clouds. Tough eating climate. Nix. The sign
outside the lamb sandwich tent was fantastic, though. It was instructive, or instructing rather. It was a veritable Plato's “Republic” of sandwichness – take virtuous pita bread and well-schooled lamb, add lettuce, add onion, add tzatziki sauce. Enjoy a harmonious republic of tastiness. Substitutions not suggested.
My visit was early, but imported musical talent was already playing: a band from Pittsburgh, no less. The bouzouki player gave me a big wave when taking his picture. It was too hot for dancing so I was the sole soul on the dance floor – hard not to wave at a singular camera. Things surely picked up after dusk.
In the market part of the Greek Food Festival, a number of booths offered iconographic religious art so indicative of the Orthodox artistic tradition. I noticed in the back one booth a brazier of fuming incense – it was surely ignited more in terms of devotion than marketing ambiance.
Greek food is fun food for people of all creeds and extractions. It's often lubricated and caffeinated by ouzo, wine and espresso. It goes well with music. It invites dance. It invites loud conversation.
Bonus tidbit
Meet Pedi ...
He's Director of Entertainment, Marketing and Promotions at Krave nightclub.
Witness his fantastic flowered hoodie sported at First Friday. It features a British Romantic-to-Gothic Charlotte Bronte-like waif image. She's surrounded by autumnal leaves and flying birds.
Apparently Pedi yanked this top from his girlfriend Ida's hand in a Buffalo Exchange shopping stop. He sports the flash gear stylishly. She better watch her stash.
(This blog entry written with a side order of Duran Duran's first album.)