One of the most loved dishes at SYMEON’S Greek Restaurant in Yorkville is the Xanthi sandwich.

The sandwich, made with Thracian chicken and eggplant, is one of their bestsellers.

What You Need To Know

  • Oneida County Tourism is highlighting local dishes through its “A-to-Z Food Tour”

  • The goal is to have more people check out the unique foods at local restaurants

  • Dishes will soon be listed on the Oneida County Tourism website

“Basically the way it came to be is from my wife. She was having lunch one day, and she kind of put this concoction together,” said Symeon Tsoupelis, the restaurant’s owner.

Tsoupelis says they named the sandwich after the place where his father grew up. The popular sandwich was nominated multiple times for Oneida County Tourism’s “A-to-Z Food Tour,” a new campaign highlighting local dishes, inspired by an effort in South Carolina.

Promoting tourism is a balancing act these days. Right now, the goal is to help locals check out what their own community has to offer. The thought is that a blog with unique local dishes for each letter of the alphabet is a fun, safe, and beneficial promotion.

“It’s a cool way to, a campaign that keeps us busy during the winter but also have that twofold of we’re still promoting local restaurants and educating locals on what we have,” said Oneida County Tourism Communications Director Sarah Foster.

To learn more about the campaign, visit OneidaCountyTourism.com. Staff say the list will live on their website as a blog.

They will also run a social media campaign to complement the list throughout the winter. To stay up-to-date, they suggest following Oneida County Tourism on Facebook at Visit Oneida County, NY and on Instagram at @ocnewyork.