R.J. Barrel and Co., Canton, Mississippi ***

Great place for a beer and a pizza -- or a calzone -- or a homemade cinnamon roll. The guy who owns this place makes his own bread -- for pizza crust, for calzone, for cinnamon rolls -- from scratch -- and that's a rarity these days, especially in the South. We've never had much of a bread tradition down here except for biscuits and cornbread, and even those are either packaged or frozen these days, most places. So it was refreshing to actually walk into a restaurant and smell yeast bread baking. The place is very casual -- lots of Little Leaguers there the day we visited. Prime location right there overlooking the BEAUTIFUL Canton, Mississippi, town square. This place gets our recommendation -- if what you're looking for is casual and "Italian."