August 16-17, 2024
8/16 - 3pm - 10pm
8/17 - 11am - 10pm
Admission Fee: $3
Ages 12 and under: Free
Once in a Lifetime Dining Experience Available for Bid!
This year, our private dining experience takes on a whole new look and feel. This VIP, or in this case VIG (That's Very Important Greek), experience will take place in the idealic setting of Sietsma Orchards in Ada, MI. It is a private dining opportunity for you and 30 of your closest friends, family members, or co-workers.
Come experience Greek culture, food and wine in a very personal way. Be catered to. Enjoy your own personal beautifully decorated room, with a full linen covered banquet table, your own specialized menu prepared table-side, a unique wine list, and of course our famous hospitality delivered by the chairmen and exectuive chefs behind Yassou!
What a great way to spend an evening with people you love, perhaps celebrating their accomplishments, while helping out a worthy cause! Upon your arrival at Sietsma you will be immersed in the ambiance of this otherwise wonderful event. Live music will surround you, your senses will be overwhelmed by the aroma of wood fires, spices, and herbs.
Immediately, you will notice the "soufla" or the spit, sitting outside your banquet room. This coal burning, stainless steel BBQ pit will have a whole spring lamb on it, marinated and prepared in traditional fashion. It will have been roasting on its fire since the wee hours of the morning awaiting your arrival. It will be the grand finale of the fabulous dinner you are about to enjoy!
You will be greeted by the Chairmen of Yassou! and talented Chefs who will be responsible for your service over the next couple of hours. They will prepare for you a beautiful "taste of Greece" taking you and your guests on a culinary trip through their ancestral land... You will go from the mainland to the seaside, exploring all of what the Greek cuisine has to offer. Everything that can be prepared table side, will be, allowing you and your guests to ask questions and participate in the process.
After several courses of "Mezze" (appetizers) the main entrees will be served. The lamb will be removed from the spit and carved into a host of wonderful cuts ranging from ribs, to shank, to the delectable tenderloin, or back straps. In addition to this exquisite main protein, a host of other traditional fare will be served: a special menu created just for you!
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It seems every developed European country has some kind of meatball and the Greeks are no different... Except ours are the best! ;) These fluffy little meat clouds are made of ground beef, ground pork, garlic, mint, and other herbs. They are a classic "mezze" in almost every Greek household.
Fried Summer Vegetables
Calamari
If it has (or had) tentacles, we love it and so will you! Fresh calamari will be broken down, dusted in seasoned flour and quickly flash sautéed. Served with fresh lemon. Another classic summertime dish in seaside towns.
Horta
Greek Salata
A staple of Greek cuisine. Whether fine dining, or eating at Yiayia's (grandma's) horta is almost always on the table. Assorted leafy greens are either boiled or steamed before being served with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
What is a meal without salata? Fresh local lettuce, onions, tomatoes, feta cheese, and olives. All delicately tossed in our signature red-wine and lemon vinaigrette. Delicately seasoned with Greek oregano.
Greek Potatoes
Yemista
In our collective lives, none of us can remember ever sitting down to a lamb dinner without seeing a side of golden, baked, Greek-style potatoes. Here local Yukon golds will be seasoned with lemon, oregano, olive oil, salt and better and baked until crisp!
Ask any of our elders which dish brings back fond memories of summertime in their childhood and they will most certainly tell you Yemista. Fresh ripe tomatoes, stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, rice, sautéed onion, garlic and herbs. Baked till tender.
Fresh Greek Bread
Fresh Greek Bread
Manestra
Manestra
Need we say more? Freshly baked Greek bread. Right from our ovens, straight to your table!
Otherwise known as "orzo" in English. A simple, perfect starch to accompany your meal. Simply seasoned and tossed in olive oil.
Whole Roasted Lamb
A tradition throughout Greece for millennia. If you love lamb, you absolutely adore this preparation. If you have never had lamb, you will love it just the same! A rich, hearty protein. Distinct, but by no means "gamey". Greek-style lamb is marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, fresh Mediterranean herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. It is then slow roasted over a wood coal fire for 8-10 hours. A feast for the senses!
The Bid Starts Here...
Only one V.I.G. event is available for Yassou! 2016. It will take place on a day and time of your choosing (pending venue availability). So grab your friends, family, or co-workers and start bidding! Click the icon below to be directed to the auction site!
Grilled Octopus
Kefthedes
The Greeks have been eating octopus since ancient times, and it's still on the menu of the country's many psarotavernes, or fish taverns. It is slow braised until fork tender the day before your dinner. It is then marinated overnight and seared over a wood fired grill. Served with lemon.
Shrimp w/ Feta
In Greece, summer's bounty is celebrated. Here are Yassou! we are doing the same! For this course, we will serve delicately battered eggplant, zucchini, and peppers. They will be lightly fried and served with a pinch of salt.
The sea provides much of the islands' diet. Here we move into a heavier entre. Large shrimp are peeled and deveined. They are sautéed in olive oil and garlic, then served in a luscious sauce of fresh tomatoes and feta cheese! Perfect with your manestra!
Loukoniko
We couldn't help ourselves. Although mostly a fall/winter dish, the chance to make fresh loukoniko was too good to pass up! Yes, we started with pork, ground it, seasoned it, and stuffed it into a natural casing before grilling it.