(Kalí óreksi!) = bon appetit
W
hen Chris Tsoutsounakis turned 16, his parents gave him a car for his birthday. On the keychain were also keys to the family’s Astro Burgers restaurant, where he’d been helping out in one way or another since he was a toddler. Now the chef/owner of his own place, GR Kitchen in Cottonwood Heights, Tsoutsounakis says with a grin, “Greek families are incredibly generous, loyal and supportive of each other. With that comes hard work and responsibility. In my case, I got a car, but I also got the closing shift.” And it’s something that Tsoutsounakis believes in his bones is a cultural and personal calling, serving up equal portions of food and graciousness. “There’s nothing else that I’ve ever wanted to do,” he says. “Working with food and serving people every day is something I love to do. And it’s part of being Greek, where being hospitable always comes first.” Teasing out the story of how Greek
immigrants over more than a century have become such a powerful force in Utah’s food culture is a bit like biting into a gooey piece of baklava: complex, multi-layered, a little bit sticky. But always delicious. It’s a story built in equal parts on that triumvirate of culinary success that Utah Greeks have taken to heart: food, service and generosity. As Katrina Cutrubus, pastry chef and co-owner of Manoli’s on 9th, says, “There’s always food when there are Greeks. And there’s always lots of it. Family, food, taking care of people. It’s what we do.” It’s a bit like reading a Greek phone book, looking at the extensive and influential list of Utah’s food entrepreneurs. From kafenio (coffee houses) started by the state’s first Greek immigrants in the 1900s through the 1920s, to another big wave of Greeks relocating to Utah in the 1960s-’80s. Greek entrepreneurs worked hard and have had incredible success in many
professions, but they are an undeniably vibrant force at every level in food service in the state: whether running classic diners and family restaurants, organizing food-distribution and grocery networks, starting Utah’s worldfamous pastrami-topped Greek burger dynasties, or operating innumerable fast-Greek drive-thrus. Hearing stories of fancy restaurants featuring elaborate Greek foods, belly dancers and live music performers makes us wish for the return of last century’s swank supper club culture. And Utah’s Greeks have been famously flexible in achieving success no matter the culinary enterprise. Louis and Athena Nichols owned and operated Senior Pepe’s—a local favorite for Mexican food—at 216 S. State for many years. In Bountiful, pharmacist Gregory Skedros took his personal passion for food to the next level in 1978, opening the Mandarin Chinese Restaurant, which daughter Angel continues his fine tradition, with
Mapping Greek Culture & Cuisine in Utah by Darby Doyle for Devour 1870—Nicholas Kastro, the first Greek in Utah (probably) came to Bingham Canyon via California. He developed several mining claims consolidated under the Kastro Group and Kastro Grecian Mining Co. He sold the claims to SLC Mining Corp. in 1911 for a reported $35,000, and was rumored to have returned to Greece in his old age.
32 Devour Utah • October 2016
1898—Leonidas Skliris, probably the second Greek in Utah, became a notorious laborprocurement agent.
1903—Four Greek food-oriented businesses are operating in SLC, including a candy shop, grocery store, kafenio (The Athenian Bachelor’s Club is thought to be the first coffee house in Utah) and a lunch wagon on Main Street run by Vassilios Demos.
1904—More than 1,000 Greeks live in the greater SLC area, most working railroad or bridge construction.