At Lyle Bento’s restaurant, the most successful dishes are those that take Southern standards and give them a little twist. For example, he brines his chicken livers in buttermilk before frying—an unusual technique—and then perches each delicate, delicious bite atop Texas-style polenta cakes made from cheese grits and bright spring onions. He similarly tweaks your standard cucumber-tomato salad, tossing the diced vegetables atop a sunny schmear of deviled egg yolk for a fun, unexpected twist on two church potluck staples that’s one of the only things that could possibly make me wish summer would stick around.