From a small stage constructed in the southeast corner of his downtown Canton restaurant, Native Son co-owner Ryan Sumner declares his love of the written word to the locals packed inside for an author event. As his wife, Maxine, glides among the 13 tables doling out muffulettas and alligator hot link po’boys, Sumner continues extolling small town values and the power of old school print media to foster genuine human connection. “That’s why we have our regional magazines and carry all the local newspapers,” he explains as he points to a literature rack next to the bar, where that week’s issue of The Canton Herald is displayed next to copies of Van Zandt County’s Grand Saline Sun and the print-only broadsheet magazine, County Highway. “What we’re trying to do is connect to an old way of living that’s still relevant today,” he says.
After a conversation about Canton’s pre-Civil War history with Elvis Allen, chairman of the Van Zandt County Historical Commission, a number of customers make their way to the cocktail bar. Here they can enjoy the fruits of Sumner’s mixology experience—something honed for years behind the stick in Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York City. Nowadays, he’s known for seasonal specials like a sweet tea margarita made from reposado tequila, sweet tea cordial, and a squirt of lemon and lime. The drink complements both the menu’s interplay of southern Cajun and Texas cuisines and Sumner’s efforts to tap into local, sentimental favorites.
In the small Piney Woods town of roughly 5,000, even the impetus for the menu is analog. A collaborator on the project, Sumner’s Beaumont-raised mother, Yvonne Benoit Sumner, drew inspiration from handwritten family recipe books. For example, the dark-roux gumbo canard and warm banana pudding come from her Cajun ancestors in Louisiana. Consulting chef Tim Byres adds his own James Beard Award-winning expertise via remarkable offerings like grilled redfish with a splash of beurre monté and speckled butter beans. Regulars like James Cooley plunk down at tables lined with old newspaper and are served their favorites—often without asking—whether it’s a smoked and wood-fired pork chop or the housemade cracklins best enjoyed with a side of charred jalapeño-ranch remoulade for dunking. “They just know,” he says. “Everyone feels like Norm [from Cheers] here.”
That kind of familiarity steered Sumner back to family land in Canton in 2018 after working at André Balazs’ luxury hotel Sunset Beach in New York. He and Maxine were expecting the first of their three sons at the time and were eager to raise children in a place where Sumner has family roots dating to 1856. For the next two years, he consulted at bars and restaurants like Midnight Rambler in Dallas, while Maxine chaired the Canton Main Street Organization to revitalize downtown. When the pandemic disrupted their careers in 2020, the couple created a pop-up concept called Feathered Friend Chicken—a chef-driven riff on Chick-fil-A run out of a Valero gas station. That small taste of business ownership led to bigger ambitions, and they opened a permanent restaurant in 2024.
“For a couple of generations, people ran from small towns,” Sumner says. “But now young creatives are returning. You see it in Lockhart, Brenham, and Waxahachie. We decided that instead of being a cultural vampire in a big city, we would come back to a small town and help inject culture into it ourselves.”
With that arts-focused initiative at the forefront of their return, the Sumners have turned Native Son into a hub for live music, with bands ranging from local newcomers to stars like rockabilly icon Dale Watson. To preserve the community’s history, they frequently schedule book signings and author lectures. A rack of magazines is mounted in an area where most places would’ve installed some flat-screen TVs. They sponsor the summer reading program at Van Zandt County Sarah Norman Library, and a book club centered on young adult literature is also in the works.
The Sumners’ intentional efforts to infuse Canton with culture and regional cooking make Native Son a coveted place in town. In fact, the the combination of thoughtful Cajun food, good tunes, and some lively public discourse fueled by sweet tea margaritas have made it so beloved, it’s now the only Canton restaurant taking reservations. “Ryan and Maxine have brought a ‘love your neighbor’ type situation, with food no one else is attempting,” Cooley says. “There’s just an atmosphere of lightheartedness and friendliness that has made the environment feel like family.”
