Author: Matt Ingersoll

Nashua’s St. Philip Church presents pop-up event

Last October, St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church in Nashua held a first-come, first-served gyro and baklava pop-up, its first food event in a year, and it far exceeded organizers’ expectations.

“We sold out twice during the day, had to make an emergency run to get more supplies … and still ended up having to close up,” said Christina Eftimiou, who co-chaired the pop-up with fellow parishioner Tina Alexopoulos. “I think we really underestimated just how much people missed having our annual festival and the Greek food that we put out.”

A second pop-up highlighting Greek pastries and cookies followed, just ahead of the holiday season, and was also a resounding success. Now, Eftimiou and Alexopoulos are organizing a new pre-ordering event featuring more favorites like pastitsio (Greek lasagna), keftedes (Greek meatballs) and spanakopita (spinach pie). Online orders are available now through April 30, with pickups on Saturday, May 14, coincidentally falling on the church’s normal festival weekend.

“We didn’t want people to not be able to get the food that they wanted,” Eftimiou said, “so at least by having the pre-order end about two weeks before the actual pickup date, we’re going to be able to make exactly what we need so that everyone who places their order is going to get it.”

Planning for this new pop-up began in February. When coming up with a menu, Eftimiou said she and Alexopoulos looked both at what some of the bigger sellers were from previous events, and which items they could produce in bulk and in a reasonable amount of time. The pastitsio, keftedes and spanakopita are all available to order as dinners with rice and Greek string beans baked in a tomato sauce. Those same dinner-sized portions can also be ordered a la carte.

Pastitsio is a Greek-based pasta dish with ground beef and a béchamel sauce. The keftedes, also prepared using beef, are cooked in a tomato sauce and come three per order, while the spanakopita has layers of spinach and feta cheese. The church’s own freshly baked baklava, made from an old recipe, is also on the menu a la carte — that comes in a pack of four per order.

A cookbook of recipes collected by the church’s Agape Ladies Society is being sold too.

When ordering through the website, you’ll choose a pickup time between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

“We’re trying to plan so that the food is coming out of the oven fresh, so that we’re able to package and deliver it to people hot and ready to go,” Eftimiou said.

Next year will mark the church’s 50th anniversary. Eftimiou said she hopes the festival can be brought back to its traditional format by then, and a gala is also in the planning stages for the fall.

Greek food festival pop-up

When: Pre-orders are available now through April 30; pickups will be on Saturday, May 14, between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Where: St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church, 500 W. Hollis St., Nashua
Cost: Foods are priced per item; see ordering form for details
Visit: nashuagreekfestival.com

Featured photo: Pastitsio (Greek lasagna). Courtesy photo.

News from the local food scene

• The key to deliciousness: Join artisan bread maker Cheryl Holbert of Nomad Bakery in Derry for a Shlissel challah key design class, set to take place virtually on Wednesday, April 27, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. A Jewish custom, a key-shaped challah is baked on the first Shabbat (day of rest) after Passover to welcome a season of good fortune. Admission is $50 per person — registrants will receive a link via Zoom to access the class, as well as a printable pdf file of Holbert’s signature and vegan challah recipes. Visit nomadbakery.com.

• Georgia wines: Discover wines of Georgia with WineNot Boutique (25 Main St., Nashua) during a special event on Friday, April 22, which will feature in-store tastings from 6 to 8 p.m., as well as a virtual tasting via Zoom during the second hour. The tiny country of Georgia is the oldest wine region of the world, and features at least 430 indigenous grape varieties. Admission is $25. Visit winenotboutique.com.

• Through the grapevines: LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst) will host a Walks in the Vineyard wine class, the first event of an upcoming four-part series, on Sunday, May 1, from 11 a.m. to noon. Wine educator Marie King and vineyard manager Josh Boisvert will lead attendees through a fun and educational walk through the vineyards, focused on the life cycles of the vines. Attendees will learn how the wine enjoyed in a glass starts as grapes on vines, and will also get a chance to taste four LaBelle wines during the session. More events in the series are scheduled to take place over the coming months through October — no previous attendance or prior knowledge of wines are necessary to attend any of the walks. Tickets are $30 per person plus tax, and reservations are suggested. Visit labellewinery.com.

• Time for ice cream: Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream will open its Salem shop for the season on Friday, April 22, according to a recent announcement on its Facebook and Instagram pages. Its Derry shop opened three weeks earlier, on April 1. Since 2004 in Derry (and 2012 in Salem), Moo’s Place has been offering a wide variety of its own homemade hard-serve ice cream flavors, in addition to frozen yogurts and Italian ices. Both shops are also known for offering a selection of their own ice cream cakes. The Salem location will be open this weekend from 3 to 9 p.m. on Friday and from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Visit moosplace.com.

• Flavors of Jalisco: Simple flavors of authentic Mexican street foods are available at a new eatery now open in Derry. Los Reyes Street Tacos & More opened earlier this month in the town’s Hillside Plaza (127 Rockingham Road) — tacos, quesadillas, burritos and bowls all make up the menu with a wide variety of filling options. To start, the eatery is open five days a week for lunch and six days a week for dinner. Visit losreyestreettacos.com.

The Sleazy Vegan launches in Manchester

Directly behind Manchester’s SNHU Arena, a new ghost kitchen is serving up whole food plant-based breakfast and lunch items, with plans to soon expand into a food truck later this year.

It’s called The Sleazy Vegan, and while there’s no retail storefront, online orders are now being accepted every Wednesday through Saturday, with local deliveries within a 5-mile radius of the venue. Owner Kelley-Sue “KSL” LeBlanc hopes to offer catering on the weekends, and she’s also set to participate in some upcoming events, like a private menu tasting at To Share Brewing Co. on April 19, as well as at the Manchester Taco Tour on May 5.

LeBlanc, who grew up in Nashua and now lives on the Queen City’s West Side, officially launched public online ordering on April 1. The Sleazy Vegan’s name origin is twofold — as she dreams of sailing, she wanted a business that could enable her to travel more. She came up with the phrase when playing around with other names that would share the “S.V.,” or sailing vessel, prefix. But the name, she added, is also reflective of her mission — bringing approachable whole food plant-based meal options to everyone regardless of their diet identity.

“People get really, really heated about the word ‘vegan,’ and I mean, it doesn’t have to mean anything bad,” LeBlanc said. “I’m not all the way vegan, but I do choose to eat whole food plant-based [meals] more often than not. … So much gets lost in the labels because they are loaded terms, with different meanings for people. I want to feed everybody great-tasting, fill-your-belly food that is good in your mouth and even better for your body and the planet.”

LeBlanc found her current kitchen space through a connection with Manchester Housing Authority and will also be feeding lunch twice a week to the residents of the building.

The online ordering menu is designed to be approachable and enticing to people of all diets — not just vegans or vegetarians. Popular breakfast options out of the gate have included scrambles and burritos made with Just Egg, a plant-based egg substitute made from mung beans; as well as steel-cut oatmeal with cinnamon and nutmeg, and chia pudding made with oat milk and vanilla.

As for lunch items, LeBlanc’s biggest winners thus far have been the “sleazeballs,” or her take on a meatball sub featuring handmade plant-based meatballs on a hoagie roll; the spicy Thai chickpea wrap, which features a combination of chickpeas and navy beans chilled in a crunchy peanut sauce and dressed with various veggies; and the Buffalo “kitchen” nugget wrap. The play on words with the latter’s name comes from her daughter, Cheyenne, who confused the word ‘chicken’ with ‘kitchen’ as a toddler.

“The product we use for the plant-based ‘chicken nugget’ has a small amount of egg powder in it, so it’s not truly vegan. The taste and flavor are such a great alternative to chicken [that] we still wanted to offer it to folks,” LeBlanc said. “The fact that it’s a ‘kitchen’ nugget is a shy version of a chicken nugget … without me calling it that and offending a bunch of people.”

While certain menu items will be available every week, LeBlanc said she hopes to offer different specials in line with the seasonality of ingredients.

During the Taco Tour she’ll be set up at To Share Brewing Co., offering jackfruit tacos with a mango-jalapeño salsa. The April 19 event, also at the brewery, will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person and will include a pint of beer and a selection of menu samples of Sleazy Vegan favorites.

Even once the food truck is ready, LeBlanc plans to continue operating out of the ghost kitchen — the goal, she said, is to make The Sleazy Vegan a reputable option for business catering.

“There are tons of businesses that have breakfast and lunch meetings and other events … that get catered all the time,” she said. “As an IT person, I used to be part of these events all the time, and there was nothing I could ever eat except for a salad. … So I really hope to be able to target businesses and I want them to understand that they can offer food [that is for] everyone.”

The Sleazy Vegan
Visit thesleazyvegan.com and click on the “online menu” tab

Where: Local deliveries are available within a 5-mile radius of the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester). A food truck is also expected to launch later this year.
When: Wednesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., for breakfast and lunch. Special event catering is also available.

Featured photo: Spicy Thai chickpea wrap. Courtesy of The Sleazy Vegan.