Annual Lebanese dinner — a Wichita staple since 1921 — returns this weekend
The first-ever Lebanese dinner at St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita happened in 1921. And except for when the country was at war, when the cathedral was undergoing renovations or when COVID had shut everything down, the dinner has been put on every year since.
This weekend, the congregation of the cathedral in east Wichita will put on its 90th installation of the fund-raising dinner, which invites members of the community to purchase meals that include traditional Lebanese dishes like cabbage rolls, kibba and baklawa.
The dinner, the church’s biggest annual fundraiser, will run from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday at the church, 7515 E. 13th St. Members of the church have been working for months to prepare the meals they’ll serve, each of which will include Lebanese salad, pita bread, cabbage rolls, kibba, ruz and yuknee — a Lebanese stew with beef, green beans and tomatoes that’s served over rice — and baklawa for dessert. Vegetarian plates also will be available.
Customers can either pick their food up at a well-oiled drive-through setup, dine inside or pick up their food to go. Meals cost $23, $15 for children 10 and under. The event also will include a popular Country Kitchen offering extra portions of things like kibba, cabbage rolls and baklawa as well as salad dressing and pita bread. Church tours also will be offered.
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The event is a favorite fall tradition in Wichita, said dinner co-chair Alexis Phillips. But beyond that, it’s a treasured part of the church’s history: Her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother all played key roles in organizing and preparing the dinner over its long history, and now, Phillips’ own children are starting to get involved.
“It’s a labor of love for people who are carrying the tradition on,” she said. “When it started in 1921, it was really to share culture, and it grew and it grew and it grew.”
Members of the church gather each year to carry out the familiar tasks required to prepare the dinner. This year, they rendered 1,620 pounds of butter, prepared 2,730 pounds of meat and prepared 22,000 cabbage rolls.
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In addition to co-chairing the event, Phillips said, she’s also “chairs cabbage,” meaning that she cooked all the cabbage needed to make the dinner’s cabbage rolls. And she’s enjoyed teaching her children — ages 8, 11 and 12 — how to wrap the leaves around the filling.
In the future, her children will be the ones carrying on the tradition of the dinner, she said.
“So much of the culture is learning while watching or learning while smelling the spices and just knowing what they’re called,” she said of the younger generation of helpers. “They’re being trained without knowing they’re being trained.”
90th St. George Lebanese Dinner
When: 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday (dine-in closes at 7 p.m.); noon to 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: St. George Orthodox Christian Church, 7515 E. 13th St.
Tickets: $23 for adults, $15 for children 10, available on site or in advance at the cathedral office.
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 9:42 AM.
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