German food served with a smile
EVANS CITY — One of the best parts of Oktoberfest is the food and festival goers looking to get a taste of authentic German treats can visit two local businesses this year to get their fix.
Longtime business Sports and Spirits and newcomers P&B's Sweets and Eats are cooking up meats, sweets and drinks throughout the three-day festival that starts Friday.
Deb Collins, owner of Sports & Spirits on Main Street, has been making traditional German fare for a number of years to go along with the Oktoberfest celebration.
“We got started because a lot of the places around here don't have authentic German food,” Collins said.
This year they will be making bratwurst and sauerkraut, German potato salad, giant Bavarian pretzels with beer cheese, spicy kielbasa with sauerkraut and Reuben tots. They'll also have curry wurst, a bratwurst dressed with a homemade curry sauce.
Collins, who owns the restaurant with her husband Ray, is of German heritage and remembers her grandparents making some of these foods she's making for Oktoberfest.
They'll also have a variety of German beers, although Collins did not have a list formalized yet.
Sports & Spirits will be open regular hours Friday and Saturday and open from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.
P&B Sweets and Eats opened in July inside Viola's Market on Main Street by friends Pam Greenawalt and Bea Green, both longtime Evans City residents. The pair had always dreamed of owning their own business and finally the opportunity came up when Frank Viola Jr., owner of Viola's Market, offered them a small space in the supermarket near the deli.
They will be making German soft pretzel sticks, potato latkes, apple strudel sticks and bierocks. Bierock is a German meat pocket stuffed with ground beef and cabbage, Green said.
Green said she has German background in her family and has made food for Oktoberfests in the past. She has more than 30 years experience in the food industry.
The cafe sells freshly baked pastries each day. It also has breakfast sandwiches in the morning and a lunch selection that changes each day. Greenawalt and Green also do some catering as their schedules permit.
Greenawalt and Green said they couldn't have gotten their business off the ground and made it work without the help of their family and friends. Greenawalt said she comes from a long line of family owned businesses in Evans City, starting with her grandfather Forrest Beahm who owned a newsstand and ice cream parlor in town in the 1940s and '50s.
“The community has been supportive of our idea and they've welcomed us with open arms,” Greenawalt said.
Through Oktoberfest they'll be set up outside Viola's Market selling food.
