Tribute to The Mandarin’s Gregory Skedros
The passing of The Mandarin founder Greg Skedros feels like the end of an era.
The Mandarin’s Facebook post announced his passing on Jan. 27 at age 93. “Greg’s relentless determination and work ethic, and unyielding support of family, church, community and business will be greatly missed,” the Mandarin’s FB post said. Hundreds of comments gave personal accounts of his kindness, leadership and friendship along with condolences.
The FB post also asked that patrons refrain from discussing Greg’s passing with the staff as they work and process his loss, concluding with “Thank you for your great support and understanding.”
Greg Skedros leaves quite a legacy, considering that this Greek-American’s Chinese restaurant has been a beloved Bountiful landmark for almost 45 years. Many restaurants don’t make it even five or ten years.
Back when I was the Deseret News food editor, I had a chat with Skedros about why he and his wife Jenny founded The Mandarin in Bountiful in 1977.
A pharmacist, Skedros owned the Mountain View Pharmacy in Bountiful. After watching local drug stores being put out of business by grocery chain pharmacies, he decided to come up with another revenue-maker in case his own pharmacy faltered. So with their five children (Tykie, John, Katina, Anthony, and Angel) they became a Greek-American family running a Chinese restaurant.
Skedros hired chefs from Hong Kong and San Francisco to execute award-winning cuisine. He traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing to sample and compare the different dishes. According to a past Deseret News story, Skedros had a library of over 600 Chinese cookbooks.
Over the years The Mandarin has amassed many local and national awards from dining authorities such as Chinese Restaurant News, USA Today and Travel and Leisure magazine. Some folks may quibble over “authenticity,” but thousands of loyal customers beg to differ. In fact, they would probably prefer that the quibblers go elsewhere, to cut down The Mandarin’s wait for a table.
Long before “farm to table” was trendy, The Mandarin enjoyed a partnership with Bangerter Farms in Bountiful, which supplies over thousands of pounds of green beans, sugar snap peas, sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, squash, bell peppers and chiles during its growing season. Greg’s daughter and pastry chef Angel Skedros Manfredini told me she buys apples and peaches from another Bountiful family, the Duncan Family Orchard; berries from Week’s Berry Farm in Paradise, and cherries from Woodyat Cherry Farm in Willard.
Angel and her husband, Paul Manfredini, continue to operate the restaurant. Until recently, Greg still came in at night to greet guests.
In a University of Utah alumni story, Skedros shared more of his background. He was born in Salt Lake City to Greek immigrants. When he was 12, his father passed away during the Great Depression. He worked at his uncle’s drug store for 8 years. After graduating from East High in 1945, he enrolled in the U’s Air Force ROTC program and the new college of pharmacy. In 1949, he spent two years as the pharmacy officer at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines during the Korean conflict. When he returned, he worked as a pharmacy office at Hill Air Force Base before opening his own pharmacy.
These experiences likely fostered his strong work ethic and leadership.
The Mandarin regulars will miss being greeted by Greg, but his legacy will definitely live on.