Published July 17. 2026 10:13AM<\/p>\n
Family, friends and supporters gathered July 11 to celebrate the grand opening and ribbon-cutting of the Upper Macungie Tavern, bringing new life to the former Sunset Grille property in Ruppsville.<\/p>\n
The restaurant is owned by Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Teloniatis and his wife, Kalliopi Alti, who spent the past several months renovating and preparing the location after it sat vacant for about two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked very hard every day,\u201d Alti said as guests toured the restaurant and sampled menu items and desserts, including baklava and visino, a traditional sour-cherry preserve.<\/p>\n
The tavern held a soft opening June 15 before Saturday\u2019s official celebration.<\/p>\n
Unlike its predecessor, which was known primarily as a bar, the Upper Macungie Tavern is being marketed as a family-oriented restaurant featuring a scratch kitchen, where meals and desserts are prepared from raw ingredients.<\/p>\n
General Manager Rachel Spiegel, who said she has helped open more than 27 restaurants, highlighted several popular menu items, including the lobster roll and the Upper Macungie Burger.<\/p>\n
The menu features a variety of seafood and steak house offerings, including T-bone steaks, porterhouse steaks, rib-eyes, pork chops, salmon and lamb chops. Spiegel said many dishes draw inspiration from the owners\u2019 Greek heritage.<\/p>\n
In addition to the regular menu, Alti prepares specialty dishes based on recipes from her home village in Greece. The restaurant\u2019s cocktail menu also features Mediterranean influences.<\/p>\n
The family atmosphere extends beyond the menu.<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s daughter, Nikoleta, serves as a hostess, while their son, Efstratios, works in the kitchen preparing salads.<\/p>\n
Alti said her approach to cooking is rooted in a passion for sharing her culture and food with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy secret is whatever you do, do it with love,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I cook and bake, I don\u2019t do it because I have to, I do it because I love to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guests raised a toast wishing the family \u201cmany years\u201d of success in their new venture.<\/p>\n
Spiegel said a children\u2019s menu is currently being developed, with brunch service and catering expected to be introduced this fall. The family also plans to open an upstairs private dining area in 2027.<\/p>\n
Since the closure of the Sunset Grille, many area residents hoped a new restaurant would bring a unique dining option to the neighborhood. The owners believe the Upper Macungie Tavern will fill that role by combining American favorites with Greek-inspired cuisine.<\/p>\n
The restaurant offers both indoor and outdoor seating. Reservations are recommended on Fridays and Saturdays and can be made through Google or the Toast app.<\/p>\n
Left: Owners Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Teloniatis and his wife Kalliopi Alti toast. celebrating their grand opening.Press photos byLisa Draper<\/p>\n
Above: Tommy Spiegel and Alexis Snyder display samples of menu items for guests.<\/p>\n
Family members, friends, and staff join owners Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Teloniatis, his wife Kalliopi Alti, and their children Efstratios and Nikoleta for the grand opening of their new restaurant The Upper Macungie Tavern on Ruppsville Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published July 17. 2026 10:13AM Family, friends and supporters gathered July 11 to celebrate the grand opening and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-245856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}