Springfield Greek

I went on a Springfield visit and amusingly one of the top events happening was a Greek festival at the local orthodox church. I thought it was funny because I had just been to a Greek food fest in St. Louis a few days prior.

There were a lot of long lines, which was a bummer. And many of the foods were sold out.

My Greek food experience is usually the same 7 foods over and over again, so it was nice to try something new. This was loukoumades, which are "fried dough balls, bathed in honey, and sprinkled with nuts and spice." Just once I would like to be bathed in honey. Sounds relaxing.

While the food was probably better and definitely better organized in St. Louis, the entertainment here was top notch. It consisted of making some children dance around while wearing the most excellent costumes ever.

One of my buddies from college's family owns the Gyro Stop so this sign brought back some memories.

Hy-Vee was having some tastings in the booze department which was nice. They had a couple of things made in St. Louis that I hadn't tried before. I thought it was funny that I had to drive to Springfield in order to taste them. Skrewball was peanut butter flavored whiskey. I give it points for originality but I won't be buying it anytime soon. Whiskey flavored whiskey is still my favorite.

Next we picked up Tom and headed to Oak Ridge Cemetery. I don't remember why we did this, but it was a nice chance to have a walk.

We met up with Uncle Andy and Aunt Jenny for some shrimp boil action at the Lake Press Club out at Lake Springfield. They had a friggin bath tub full of shrimp that I did my best to dent.

That night I did a little wandering downtown where I used to hang out. It was fun to see some of the places that used to be so important in my life and remember all the fun I had there. A lot of the bars we used to frequent don't even exist anymore. The downtown bar scene is definitely a shadow of its former self. I was wondering if Springfield just has less of a bar scene now or it has moved somewhere else?

This was funny because this space used to be a real dirtbag bar and now it's marketing itself as some kind of fancy bar tech incubator. Times are a changin'.