{"id":16495,"date":"2019-10-31T08:29:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beverly-hanks.com\/blog\/?p=16495"},"modified":"2019-10-31T08:29:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:29:02","slug":"southern-porch-canton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/southern-porch-canton\/","title":{"rendered":"Rediscover Community at Southern Porch Kitchen & Drink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Downtown Canton | Photo by John Cayton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Ten years ago, the downtown corridor of Canton was relatively desolate: Abandoned building after abandoned building. Empty parking lots. Folks only passing through town in search of a gas station on the way to somewhere else.
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But, in an effort to save the downtown district, a handful of businesses have recently popped up. Two of these cornerstone establishments include BearWaters Brewing Company<\/a> on one end of downtown and the Southern Porch Kitchen & Drink<\/a> on the other.
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Opened in the spring of 2016, Southern Porch is truly a family affair. The restaurant is owned by Nathan Lowe and his wife, Michaela. Her mother, Cindi Layman, and stepfather, Dave Grant, are also co-owners. And Grant is the head chef, as well.
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\u201cOne of our goals with opening this restaurant was to get the ball rolling in Canton,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cAnd since we\u2019ve been here, there\u2019s been about 15 or so new businesses that have either opened or relocated to downtown.\u201d
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Housed in the historic Imperial Hotel, the Southern Porch resides on a large commercial property, one with an extended patio where troves of locals and tourists sit in the shade. There, they enjoy a meal and perhaps some live music, which is offered outside upwards of three nights a week in the summer.
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\u201cWhether we have music or not, people love sitting out on the patio,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cBut, we see the value in live music. We want to support local artists because that is their profession, and it\u2019s a great way for us to draw more people in.\u201d
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Quite literally the biggest comeback story in Western North Carolina, Canton is growing rapidly<\/a>. The housing market has returned, and so have people into downtown, with parking spaces at a premium these days. All of this puts a smile on Nathan\u2019s face.
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\u201cCanton is proud of our football team and of the paper mill,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the last piece of that puzzle is to once again be proud of our downtown. That\u2019s a reality now. People are loyal in this town\u2014to their family, friends, and local businesses. We\u2019re one big family here.\u201d
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The restaurant is focused on Southern comfort dishes like shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, and fresh trout. However, the menu does rotate each season depending on what\u2019s in season and what ingredients are available from local farmers, like meat and produce. 
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In the main taproom, you can browse a large selection of local and regional craft beers, and you can simply sit and immerse yourself in the friendly nature of the space.
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\u201cPeople always refer to our bar as having a \u2018Cheers\u2019 atmosphere,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cI never thought I would have made so many new friends from people I didn\u2019t know before I started this business\u2014people who walk in and sit down<\/a> for a meal or a beverage.\u201d
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For the Southern Porch, reaching the one-year milestone was a big deal. But, now closing in on year three, they feel like they\u2019re only getting started.
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\u201cIt\u2019s quite a feat, but we haven\u2019t arrived by any means,\u201d Nathan modestly stated. \u201cOur first goal was to make it a year. The next goal was to make it three years. It\u2019s an accomplishment, and we\u2019ll keep working hard to see this survive.\u201d
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Of the new additions to the property, the Southern Porch opened The Post Office next door. Formerly the historic post office, it\u2019s now an event space able to hold upwards of 150 people.
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\u201cWe have all kinds of wedding rehearsals and receptions in there, with plans to do live music in the wintertime,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cI feel a sense of accomplishment when I walk in the Southern Porch and it\u2019s busy. It says that we\u2019re doing something right and that our community supports us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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This post is adapted from our annual <\/em>Welcome to Western North Carolina magazine. <\/em>Click here<\/em><\/a> to read more online, or <\/em>click here<\/em><\/a> to order your own free copy.<\/em>
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Ten years ago, the downtown corridor of Canton was relatively desolate: Abandoned building after abandoned building. Empty parking lots. Folks only passing through town in search of a gas station on the way to somewhere else. But, in an effort to save the downtown district, a handful of businesses have recently popped up. Two of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2],"tags":[148,118,95],"class_list":["post-16495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-local","category-commercial","tag-canton","tag-restaurants","tag-welcome-magazine"],"acf":[],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}