Sieg, 70, who died Monday, was a founding partner of Gastronomy restaurant chain, which started with the New Yorker on Market Street and included other successful restaurants, including Market Street Grill and Market Street Oyster Bar.
"He was Mr. Hospitality," said John Williams, his partner for more than 30 years. "He initiated an era of fine dining Utah had not seen in the 30 years he presided over the New Yorker."
Both Sieg and Williams were among the first restaurateurs to fly in fresh fish, which was unheard of those many years ago, said Will Pliler, who started at the New Yorker as an 18-year-old cook and recently was named a Gastronomy partner.
"We look for the best quality foods and we still fly in fish rather than have it trucked here," said Pliler. "Although the tradition is continuing, [Sieg] will be greatly missed."
Sieg was beloved for opening his Avenues home to benefits for Ballet West, Utah Symphony, opera and other arts organizations. He extended that generosity to dozens of employees who asked to use his home and the grounds he tended for their weddings.
Sieg moved to Salt Lake City in 1966 to work as an associate director of development at the University of Utah when the school's Development Foundation was six months old. Within three years he was executive director, finding people and corporations to back university research projects and installing a computer system to keep track of donors.
"Universities have always been soliciting money, but until the development idea caught on, departments did so independently," Sieg said in 1969. "There was little organization. Now it's all under one umbrella."
His family said he left higher education to pursue his dream of opening a restaurant offering sophisticated cuisine.
Sieg was raised on a Nebraska farm and graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he later became development director. He also served in the Navy as an admiral's assistant in Coronado, Calif.
He is survived by his former wife, Melissa Miller, of Seattle, and two sons, Stephen Bradford Sieg and Erik Thomas Sieg and two grandsons.
