Photo submitted to Times Observer Jimmy Olson, Jim Brown, and Stephanie Proukou keep the steak subs coming off the line during the inaugural A Taste of Home festival Sunday at Pellegrino’s Creekside Pavilion.

Hundreds of people got together over the Labor Day weekend to visit with old friends, meet new ones, and enjoy a taste of the past.

The inaugural A Taste of Home Festival drew at least 600 people to Pellegrino’s Creekside Pavilion on Sunday.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing that event was,” Stephanie Proukou, the event’s founder, said. “Everyone was there enjoying each other’s company.”

“People helping people, people that grew up together, and they have all these roots,” Proukou said. “To see everyone enjoying themselves and their friends and their neighbors. To see everybody, reconnecting, it was the best part of the whole thing. It just radiated Warren.”

Officially, the event was the return of Teddy’s Steak Sub.

“That was really the impetus,” Proukou said of her father’s restaurant’s signature entree. “So many people have been coming up to me over the years saying they’ve never had a sub like it again.”

The event started at 5 p.m., but “people were parked along Conewango Avenue at 3,” she said. “We ended up wrapping up around 11.”

“Some people stood in line for two-and-a-half hours and didn’t even complain,” Proukou said.

They said things like, “It was exactly like it used to be,” she said, which is no surprise, since she used the original recipe.

The event was so successful that the organizers ran out of subs.

“One guy had 20 tickets in his hand,” Proukou said. “He said, ‘I used to get one every single day.'”

She asked if she could give him one then and the rest later. “I want these people behind you to get a sub.”

To make up for the shortfall, Proukou and her crew are getting together on Sunday to make another batch. “We’re going to make about 50 for the people who paid for a ticket and didn’t get one,” she said. “We’ll deliver it to their house if they can’t pick them up. I have a lot of phone calls to make today.”

A shortfall of subs meant a lot of revenue to be shared.

“We’re going to be able to give the Community Foundation $800,” Proukou said. “I’m very happy to be able to give them a nice chunk of change.”

But the sharing of memories meant more than the money.

Terry English took a picture of a newspaper clipping that he’d held onto for many decades. In the picture, Proukou’s father presented a television to a customer as part of the as part of the business’s third anniversary.

“That was a really cool experience,” she said. “There were so many that came up to me and shared their stories… ‘I remember when it was over by Waxman’s,’ or ‘I remember going bowhunting with your dad.'”

The event was inspired by the steak sub, but other restaurateurs got in on the action.

“Toward the end of the evening, we busted out the pies,” Proukou said. “I thanked the Douvlous family for their contribution.”

“We did Texas Hots (without the original recipe) to celebrate George Cheronis,” she said.

“Magda Fanaraitis was one of the first ones to get a sub,” she said. “It was nice to have the Fanaraitis family represented.”

Proukou had a lot of help for the event, from those who knew what they were getting into – Jimmy Olson, Jim Brown on the grill, Tommy Pellegrino keeping the place running smoothly – and those who just saw a need and helped out – hauling garbage, delivering orders, whatever.

People working together, people having a good time, “That’s what Warren is all about,” she said.

“It was really cool to see families that are my age or younger when Teddy’s was at its peak bringing their children.

“It couldn’t have gone better,” Proukou said. “It exceeded my expectations. It made me so happy to see everyone else so happy.

Spoiler… “It’s not the last time Warren has seen the steak sub,” she said.