Maria’s Days drew big crowds celebrating not just Maria’s, but a milestone for Spiro’s Restaurant and a new look.
Events ran at Spiro’s in Lloydminster from Aug. 7-9 and celebrated Marias’.
Read more: Xtreme go 22-0, net provincial gold
“It’s my name day and my name day happens to be the biggest holiday in Greece,” explained Maria Kokonas, owner of Spiro’s, who runs the business alongside her mom and dad, Spiro and Tina Kokonas. “It’s the day they celebrate all Marias.”
Festivities kicked off Aug. 7 with a night market in the Spiro’s parking lot.
“I think we had about 45 vendors,” said Kokonas. “It’s big for the vendors. They’re set up by four, open their markets at five and go right till 8:30 p.m.”
Kokonas said they get a lot of feedback from vendors about the positive experience they have during the market.
Jordyn Pollard performed the following day.
“It was wonderful,” Kokonas recalled. “Jordan came and she’s amazing. She draws a crowd and she gives a great performance.”
Community support made the event possible, with contributions from Maz Entertainment and a flatbed donation for the concert from Horizon Ag and Turf.
Maria’s Days wrapped up with a pancake breakfast that benefitted the Lloydminster & Area Brain Injury Society (LABIS).
“Today (Aug. 9), Spiro’s is hosting a pancake breakfast for LABIS,” said Kokonas, explaining they’re happy to be able to give back to the community.
“LABIS is a very hard-working non-profit organization. You and I today, we are amazing and we could bump our head or have some traumatic experience that puts us into a category of we’ve got a brain injury. We didn’t plan for it and now we need the services of LABIS.”
The pancake breakfast took place inside the newly-renovated restaurant.
“We had a fire in this restaurant on July, 29 (2024),” said Kokonas. “We were able to, this July, complete all the renovations. We shut down for 20 days and did our renovations and now we are back in the swing of things.
“We redid all the colours in here, new light fixtures, new paint textures and did lots of wainscotting.”
She said the functionality of the dining room didn’t change but the kitchen was redone following last year’s fire. New additions to the kitchen include a new floor and a double oven, totalling three pizza ovens.
The festivities for the Kokonas’ family don’t stop there, as this year marks a big milestone for the restaurant.
“We started in Lloydminster 55 years ago in September,” she said.
While no plans are definitive as of yet, Kokonas said they’ll be planning something big.
“We’re going to do something celebratory and have some fun with it,” she said. “We’re making sure the community’s aware we’ve been here for 55 years.”
Read more: A familiar pillar of the border city
