St Demetrios Greek Festival

Bougatsa
St Demetrios Greek Festival, $5

The organizers of the annual Greek Festival at Seattle's St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church have clearly learned a few things since the festival was first held in 1960.  After fifty-two years, they have celebrating down to a science.  

Entering the festival is like arriving in a foreign country:  exchange some cash for festival tokens and pick up a helpful map.  Get the lay of the land by attending an informative sanctuary tour, then pick up some souvenirs at one of the shops or bookstores.  Having worked up an appetite, chose from sit-down meals in the dining room, beer and snacks at the adults-only tavernas, or coffee and sweets--available by the box from the Agora market or by the piece from the Kafenion. 

The bougatsa (above) is served warm from the oven, highlighting its great interplay of textures:  crinkly phyllo pastry, creamy custard, and crunchy walnuts.  Also available: 

Baklava:  a sweet sandwich of walnuts, cinnamon, and buttered phyllo, soaked in syrup
Bakalava sundae: a new spin on the old favorite, chopped baklava pastry with espresso, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream
Kourambiethes:  butter cookies coated in compacted powdered sugar
Kataifi:  shredded phyllo pastry with walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar
Pasteli: candy made from sesame seeds and honey
Galaktoboureko: semolina custard with crispy buttered phyllo, soaked in orange blossom syrup
Koulouraki: pretty braided butter cookies
Melomakarona:  olive oil cookies flavored with orange, brandy, honey, and walnuts
Loukoumades:  doughnuts with honey and cinnamon

George's Bakery

 

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookie

George's Bakery, $1

A disc of buttery shortbread and a dollop of fudgy icing:  sweet, simple, and satisfying out of all proportion to its size.  The same could be said for just about anything from George's Bakery.  

Founder George Marcis was born in Greece in 1933 and immigrated to the US as a teenager; he learned English while studying at Seattle's Broadway Technical School.  In 1964 Macris and his wife Jean opened their bakery on the main street in North Bend, a small mountain town in the Olympic mountains east of Seattle.  

Until the 1978 bypass, Interstate 90 ran past the front door, delivering hungry skiers and hikers to and from the mountains.  Macris' work day started at 3am, and one North Bend resident described seeing him work "like a buzzard" to keep his cases stocked with fresh baked goods:  cracked wheat, cinnamon nut, and rye bread, danishes, doughnuts, cinnamon twists, peaked "Mount Si" loaves, and boozy rum balls.  When there weren't enough chairs to go around, patrons would happily sit on the floor with their pastries and coffee.

The Macrises commuted into Seattle to attend the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, and George's Bakery played an active role in producing goods for the annual fundraiser bazaars; in the days before an event, the bakery would host a revolving army of volunteer bakers, trying their best to meet the public's lucrative demand for specialty breads and pastries.  

Macris retired in 1993, selling the business to Greg and Cornelia Cordova.  In 2008 the business passed to current owners Kathleen Stokesbury and Joe McKeown, a third-generation baker from Pittsburgh who had previously run Seattle's Greenwood Bakery.  By all accounts, they've done little to change the formula that made George's Bakery a neighborhood hub:  the decor is still comfortably kitschy, the cases are still filled with familiar favorites. 

Macris passed away in 2008 at the age of 70; North Bend's mayor honored him with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, citing his unwavering support for community members and events. 

George's Bakery

127 W North Bend Way  

North Bend, WA
425/888-0632

 

Other North Bend sources of notable sweets include Twedes's (below left), home of the "damn fine" cherry pie immortalized in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and Scott's Dairy Freeze (below right), home of some damn sweet signage.   

Galaktoboureko

Galaktoboureko
The Continental, $3.50

Although its name is a simple amalgam of the Greek word for milk and the Turkish word for pie, galaktoboureko is a real mouthful--so much so that a friend of mine who married into a Greek family has given up trying to pronounce it correctly, asking instead for second helpings of "galactic booty call."

Like a Maria Luisa, galaktoboureko is essentially a custard sandwich, two wisps of flimsy phyllo pastry bookending a dense slab of eggy custard (which in the "portokali" variant is infused with orange). While the custard and pastry layers of a napoleon are cooked separately, galaktoboureko is cooked all at once, resulting in more robust texture. Before serving, the pastry is soaked in plain or citrus-scented simple syrup.

At the Continental, galactoboureko is baked once a week and is available from Thursday to Saturday, or until it runs out. I prefer it in the first day or two, before it absorbs too much of the syrup.

The Continental

4549 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

206/632-4700‎