Business Comings & Goings: Pappa’s Gyros Readies Christmas Dinners

Math tutoring center opens in Evergreen Park. Mt. Greenwood gets ready for a Christmas party.

Big Pappa’s Gyros at 10806 S. Cicero Ave. in Oak Lawn is gearing up for its third annual Christmas dinner giveaway. “Before we opened Big Pappa’s, I used to work at homeless shelters and know what a difference a nice meal at Christmas means to people,” said owner Sandi DiGangi. DiGangi said anyone can sign up at her restaurant for a holiday dinner but she especially wants to hear from senior citizens. “I like to help out seniors because they aren’t going to make themselves a nice dinner,” she said. DiGangi said she will also distribute toys to needy families that sign up to receive one of her turkey dinners complete with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, gravy, cranberries, soup, salad and dessert. “We deliver full meals,” she said…

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Chowdown Showdown

Battle of the Pops: Best Gyros Around

This week, Patch sought out the best gyros in the Evergreen Park, Oak Lawn and Palos area for the first of our new ongoing series “Chowdown Showdown.”

Welcome to “Chowdown Showdown,” a weekly feature where we take one type of food and ask readers to nominate their favorite restaurants in Evergreen Park, Oak Lawn and Palos. This week’s food in focus was the gyros sandwich. We tallied the votes on each respective Patch site and Facebook page. The selected restaurants for our first “Chowdown Showdown” had a decidedly paternal theme. We sampled their gyros and selected a winner. Oak Lawn Patch: Like the other two contenders, Pappy’s serves a traditional gyro with tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce. The meat was a bit overdone, but the sauce was evenly distributed. I would have preferred more spices in the meat. Palos Patch: This was your classic gyro. Everything you would expect from a solid …

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Dan Lambert

1:48 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I say everyone should go have a gyro at your favorite place. Show our locally owned businesses some love.   more ›

Volunteers Deliver Dinners and Christmas Cheer

Second annual Christmas charity dinner delivers over 1,000 dinners to needy in Southwest suburbs.

Since her husband got laid off a few months ago, Donna Kager and her family have gotten by collecting aluminum cans and turning them in for cash. It was enough to pay the electric bill, but not enough cans were left from the dwindling pile to put some toys under the tree or make something special for dinner this Christmas. So when volunteers Ed and Sharon Kristof showed up with turkey dinners and some toys at the Kagers' Bridgeview mobile home, Donna was already half way out the door eagerly greeting them. “My husband’s been laid for a long time and has had a hard time getting unemployment. I can’t get food stamps,” she said. “These are all the cans we’ve been saving. You got to do something to pay the bills.” A few days before, a friend …

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Local Restaurant Prepares Christmas Dinner for Needy, But Still Needs Pies

Big Pappa's Mr. Gyros has the turkeys and potatoes, but still needs donated pies for dessert. Restaurant plans to distribute 800 turkey dinners to Oak Lawn's needy.

Big Pappa’s Mr. Gyros collected more than $1,000 at the Goal Post Pub on Friday evening. The money will go toward turkeys and trimmings for 800 free dinners that the restaurant plans to distribute to Oak Lawn residents in need on Christmas Day. Starting around noon on Christmas Day, Big Pappa's Mr. Gyros will be handing out delicious turkey dinners with all the trimmings—no questions asked—to take home to the family or eat at the restaurant. Anyone who is alone on Christmas is also invited to have dinner at the restaurant. WATCH THE VIDEO of last year's Christmas dinner. Sandi Degangi and Eddie Memishi—owners of Big Pappa’s Mr. Gyros—can still use some pies. Yes, pies for dessert. If you’re out and about on Saturday picking up items for …

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