The literally breath-taking gorgeousness of the red rock cliffs and canyons of Kane County, Utah— an area that includes the famous and elusive “Wave,” the slot canyon Peekaboo and the eye-popping Vermillion Cliffs— has, in the past, only been matched by the utter absence of human cultural delight. No place to eat. No place to stay. No events to attend. The scenic wonder land surrounding Kanab has long been a literal and metaphorical desert for miles. It’s all great, until you finish a day of hiking and want a glass of wine.
This kind of dichotomy has been true in many Utah towns and the towns have responded in different ways. “Not another Moab!” It’s the rallying cry of many residents of Bluff, Blanding and Boulder, all villages poised for change because of increased tourism as a result of National Park and Monument designations.
Where to Go: Kanab Visitors Center has an excellent collection of single-sheet itineraries for enjoying the area’s scenery according to your abilities and preferences. Access to everything from scenic driving routes to family-friendly hikes to ATV excursions and difficult, restricted hikes like The Wave is spelled out in detail, allowing you to plan your ideal trip. Kanab Visitors Center, 745 E., US-89, Kanab, 435-644-1300, visitsouthernutah.com
Now, Kanab, in deep southern Utah, on the edge of Arizona, faces the crossroads of tradition and tourism. Kanab has long been a “gas-and-go” community but in the last five or six years Kanab has changed, and perhaps the food on the plate in front of me tells that story most succinctly: Beef Wellington. You know, Beef Wellington—one of the defining dishes of French haute cuisine, especially as it was imagined in America. Rare beef, shrouded in mushrooms and encased in puff pastry.
Except. This “beef” isn’t beef. It’s “Impossible Burger,” the much-touted meat substitute beloved by ecologists and animal lovers. It looks like beef, tastes like beef, but no animal was harmed in the making of this “meat.” The Wellington is a star on the menu at Peekaboo Wood-fired Kitchen, the vegetarian restaurant run by Kathie Chadbourne, where the selections also include wood-fired pizza, potstickers and cassoulet. The outside patio functions as a town meeting place—I can overhear conversations between off-duty adventure guides and wilderness therapy counsellors and a table nearby is occupied by Best Friends Animal Sanctuary’s founders and directors.
Kanab has changed—to such an extent that Lonely Planet says it is the “next Sedona.”
The Wave
The scenery, of course, has always been there, as old as time. What ignited the Kanab renaissance and sparked interest in the previously sleepy mostly Mormon town was one organization. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary opened more than three decades ago, bringing moneyed bi-coastal and European tourists to town for something other than scenery: Best Friends’ zealous mission to “Save Them All.”
“Kanab has always been a tourist town,” says Camille Johnson Taylor, Executive Director of the Kane County Office of Tourism, a seventh-generation Kanabite. “We’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of John Wesley Powell’s expedition and we’ve been known for decades as ‘Little Hollywood.’” Monuments to A- (and many B-) list actors who frequented the town to film Westerns in the ’50s and ’60s line Kanab’s streets. “And we’re very close to the Maynard Dixon homestead and to Lake Powell.”
But today’s tourists are a more demanding bunch. The Canyons Collection has developed a group of hotels and motels, each one distinct in its charm, emphasizing individuality as well as creature comforts.
Canyons Hotel
Where to Stay: Hotels/Inns Canyons Hotel, 190 N. 300 West, Kanab, 435-644-8660, canyonshotel.com My Star Vacation Rentals, has several unique rental houses. 435-990-5850, mystarvr.com Quail Park Lodge, classic ’50s hotel, redone: 125 N. 300 West, Kanab, 435-215-1447, quailparklodge.com Black Feather Tipi B&B (it’s a real tipi), 514 N. 200 East, Kanab, 435-899-9092, kanabstars.com/tipi.html Cave Lakes Canyon offers tipis, hogans and conventional rooms, 435-644-3812, cavelakescanyon.com
Quail Park Lodge, for example, is a classic ’50s tourist court, redone with a keen eye for today’s mid-century love affair. Canyons Boutique Hotel has been completely modernized while keeping a slight Victorian vibe. The hotels offer services like complimentary bikes and dog-friendly rooms—another influence from Best Friends, which allows visitors to take animals on “sleep-overs.
Best Friends’ animal-friendly ethos has influenced Kanab in lots of ways besides the Impossible Beef Wellington on the plate before me. You can choose from more than half-dozen good restaurants—most all with vegetarian or vegan options. The Rocking V Cafe, serving a southwestern menu of vegetarian and vegan specialties as well as bison and beef, was one of the first. Now you can order a healthy bowl meal from Wild Thyme Cafe, start the morning with fresh-made pastries (croissants warm from the oven) from Kanab Creek Bakery, enjoy Asian flavors at Fusion House Japanese-Asian Grill or authentic French cuisine at Vermillion 45, where we stop in after dinner to visit with the chef and share some wine and food in an evening of joyful hospitality Lumiere would be proud of.
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
Chadbourne bubbles with enthusiasm about the future in Kanab—she’s working to form a community of chefs, maybe even a restaurant association so that chefs and owners can cooperate on events and sourcing, which can be tricky in a place so far from anywhere. After running restaurants in Oregon and Salt Lake City, she says Kanab is the closest thing yet to her ideal.
People arrive at their dreams in strange ways. Shon Foster, chef at Sego, grew up in Utah and went to high school in Kanab, a place he never thought he’d come back to. He went on to become an audio engineer for punk bands in Los Angeles for labels like Pennywise, Epitaph, Phat Records and he still looks the part when I meet him to talk about his latest venture—the vaguely military haircut, the black sox and T-shirt, baggy shorts. The only attire that reveals he belongs in a kitchen is his clogs. He ended up as executive chef and F&B chief for Amangiri, one of the most exclusive resorts in the world, but left to start Sego Cafe in Kanab.
Where to Eat: Wild Thyme Cafe, 198 S. 100 East, Kanab, 435-644-2848, wildthymekanab.com Sego Cafe, 190 N. 300 West, Kanab, 435-644-5680, segokanab.com Peekaboo Canyon: Wood-fired Kitchen, 233 W. Center St., Kanab, 435-689-1959, peekabookitchen.com Rocking V Cafe, 97 W. Center St., Kanab, 435-644-8001, rockingvcafe.com Kanab Street Bakery, 238 W. Center St., Kanab, 435-644-5689, kanabcreekbakery.com. Fusion House Japanese-Asian Grill, 18 E. Center St., Kanab, 435-644-8868, fusionhousekanab.com
“Sego Cafe is more democratic,” jokes Foster. “We try to appeal to a broad audience and want the food to be affordable and local. The goal is to connect the food, the diner and the land. We feel we are in a position of stewardship of land and animals, stewardship of the planet via green kitchen.”
According to Francis Battista, co-founder and board chair of Best Friends, this is the larger goal of the foundation.
“Once you’re in the mindset of kindness and caretaking, it spreads to other things besides animals.”
Of course, says Taylor, there have been a few collisions between original town folk and the idealistic newcomers. But in the end, there seems to be agreement on the goal of creating a community in harmony with its place—specifically, not another Moab.
Even in the exploration boom of the 1800s, nobody dared to explore the terrain flowing through the Green and the Colorado Rivers.
That is, nobody until Major John W. Powell said the 19th Century equivalent of “Hey man, hold my beer while I try this.”
Read more about his dangerous expedition at the link in our bio!
Photo of Powell’s expedition courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division...
Whose mouth is watering? 🙋♀️😋
@granarybakehouse_slc is a small, immaculate and intimate 9th and 9th bakery with some of the best laminated pastry in town. (That means golden flakes that get all over your car because you can’t wait until you get home to take a bite.)🥖🥐🧈
Read more about Granary Bakehouse at the link in our bio! ❤️...
A brand new issue of Salt Lake magazine is coming your way!
We can't wait to share these stories with you. This issue includes our annual Blue Plate Awards celebrating those surviving and thriving in the restaurant biz. Plus, we take a road trip to Wyoming and ask why the only Utah passenger on the Titanic didn’t survive her journey.
A note from our editor Jeremy Pugh, including beautiful tributes to Mary Brown Malouf from our friends in the community, is online now. Read more at the link in our bio ❤️
Subscribers: Look for this issue in your mailbox soon. The magazine will be on newsstands March 1! 📬...
Today, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2021 Blue Plate Awards! 🎉
These prizes honor the growers, food evangelists, grocers, servers, bakers, chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs who do more than put good food on the table—they make our community a better place to live. This year, just surviving as a local business deserves an award, but each of our Blue Plate winners did more than that. They made us grateful for every person involved in the essential act of feeding us. 🍽
At the link in our bio, we have the full list of winners, a celebration of feats of COVID creativity and a tribute to restaurants we lost this year. If you’re hungry for more, pick up a copy on newsstands March 1! Plus, check out our Instagram for spotlights on some of the Blue Plate winners.
This year’s Blue Plate Awards are the first without our beloved Executive Editor Mary Brown Malouf. We dedicate them to her, our town’s biggest food fan, critic and champion. xoxomm 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @ricobrandut for Staying in Beansness
Last summer, it seemed that Rico would be another victim of rapid gentrification in Salt Lake. Luckily, Rico was able to find a new home in Poplar Grove and now plans to add even more employees. It’s a last-minute happy ending for a community leader who literally wears his mission on his sleeve, courtesy a tattoo in bright red block letters: “pay it forward.” 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award Winner: @spicekitchenincubator for Keeping the Spice Flowing
This year Spice Kitchen Incubator, already an essential resource for refugees, became, well, even more essential. 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @thestore_utah for Special Deliveries
As grocery delivery becomes the new norm, The Store offers a personal touch that only an independent grocer can provide. Last March, high-risk and elderly customers began calling in their grocery lists over the phone, and The Store’s general managers personally delivered food to their homes. 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @cucinaslc for Preserving Neighborhood Connection
Cucina’s outdoor spaces became a place where the neighborhood could gather safely. Owner Dean Pierose offered free coffee in the mornings and encouraged his regulars to linger and commiserate together, preserving a semblance of society during a socially distanced time. 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @oquirrhslc for Betting the Bottom Dollar
When COVID-19 hit Salt Lake City, Oquirrh co-owners Andrew and Angelena Fullers' dream was seriously damaged. But the Fullers keep trying to follow the rules. 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @hearth_and_hill for Opening Doors
As the pandemic ravages independent restaurants, Hearth and Hill has reaffirmed its commitment to small businesses in Park City and used its large dining room as an informal gathering space for the city. 💙...
2021 Blue Plate Award winner: @fisherbrewing for Creative Canning
This year, Fisher found ways to utilize their beer, taproom space and canning capabilities for good. They created special lines of limited edition beers in custom cans to help raise funds for local businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic. 💙...
@oquirrhslc is the kind of restaurant Salt Lake was slowly becoming famous for—chef-run, definitively local, deserving of awards and stars.
Now, a year into the pandemic, co-owners Andrew and Angelena Fuller are doing everything they can to keep Oquirrh alive. There are no days off, and they are serving all kinds of to-go orders to stay afloat, from burgers to charcuterie boards. 🍽
Independent restaurants like Oquirrh need our help! Tonight, order takeout from Oquirrh—or your favorite neighborhood spot—and support these essential members of our community. ❤️...
A wind storm #tbt for your feed today. 🌬️🛹
2020 was a long, long, loooong year, so we asked local photographers to share what the new normal looked like through their eyes. The link is in our bio!...
“Ballet dancers are all about achieving a continuous ‘line’ from the tops of our heads to the tips of our toes,” says @balletwest1 First Soloist Katlyn Addison. “Most of my life, I didn’t even think about how the pinkish tights and shoes sort of cut me in half visually, but the first time I saw a black woman like me wearing tights that matched her skin, I thought, ‘Wow, that really works for her instead of against her.’”
Check the link in bio for full story....
Melissa Diaz, owner and baker at @sweet_vinyl_bakeshop, calls herself a “baketender.” And that’s because, in addition to the usual sugar, flour, vanilla, etc., her cupcakes are flavored with beer and liquor from local brewers and distillers. So, Imperial Stout cupcakes, champagne cupcakes, bourbon maple chocolate cupcakes… you get the point. 🧁🍺
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Check the link in bio for full story....
“We’ve had to make some very tough decisions regarding staffing and operations to get through difficult times, but we’ve leaned ontechnology to help us adapt,” Nick Gradinger, co-founder of @vesselkitchen explains. “We transformed our business to facilitate seamless online ordering and curbside pickup. It’s helped create a safer environment for our customers while still delivering the quality of food and level of service they’ve grown to expect from Vessel.”⠀
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Read the full story through the link in bio....
Mother nature gifted us with some fresh snow over the weekend! ❄️ More snow in the forecast later this week means it's time to strap into those snowboard boots. ⠀
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📸 Photos courtesy of: @snowbasinresort⠀
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Check the link in bio for @snowbasinresort lift tickets, upcoming events and more! ⠀
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Just hours after being sworn in, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for a review of the boundaries for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The monuments—designated by Barack Obama in 2016 and Bill Clinton in 1996—were reduced by roughly 2 million acres by former president Donald Trump, and the executive order is seen as move towards restoring the original boundaries.
Read the full story through the link in bio.
📸Bears Ears National Monument: Courtesy of Utah Office of Tourism...
If you've never been to @dokidessert, I can assure you- you're missing out. ⠀
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Doki Doki is one of Salt Lake City’s most authentic Japanese bakeries. And the authenticity shows through their delicately handcrafted pastries and cakes. Plus- fluffy pancakes, can it get any better? ⠀
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Check the link in bio for a fun little write up! ⠀
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