Walt Thirion and Marjorie Casse landed in Kane County in 2014. They had been volunteering at Grand Canyon National Park, the kind of long-stay seasonal park work that introduces a lot of people to the Colorado Plateau, and Kanab was the closest town in any direction with the kind of community they wanted to settle into. They opened Vermillion 45 at 210 S 100 East — a small French-Italian bistro in a town where, before they arrived, the dining options ran heavily toward steak-and-burger and not much in the European register. They brought Chef Cesidio d’Andrea on as a partner.

A French-Italian Room in a Steakhouse Town

The menu the three of them built was unusual for Kanab on several axes at once. French and Belgian classics — coq au vin, mussels, things you don’t expect to find within an hour of the Wave permits — ran alongside Italian dishes and seasonal seafood. Slow-cooked, home-style, done from scratch. The Utah Restaurant Association named Vermillion 45 its Best New Concept in 2018, and the same year the bistro took a Taste of Utah award. That kind of state-level recognition is rare for any Kanab restaurant, and especially rare for a French-Italian room running a small kitchen.

Vermillion 45 in the 435

For a register of locally rooted Southern Utah businesses, Vermillion 45 is one of Kanab’s signature independents on the strength of the menu, the awards, and the Thirion-Casse-d’Andrea ownership story. The status verification is the only thing standing between the entry and a clean listing. If the bistro is operating, it belongs on the sheet alongside Rocking V and Houston’s Trail’s End as a Kanab kitchen with documented owners and a documented identity.

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