El Canton Firewood Pizzeria

El Canton first opened at the intersection of Barker Cypress and Clay roads in 2015. After about three months, Carlos and his team relocated the restaurant to its current location on Mason Road. He said he and his business partners would like to open more locations.

Carlos enlisted the help of his family to get the Katy location up and running, he said.

His mother helps host at the restaurant, and his father and sister helped build its components.

“My family has been an important part of this,” Carlos said.

The sole wood-fired oven used in the restaurant to make pizzas was built by Carlos’ father in Guadalajara.

“It was better for him to build it in his workshop in Mexico,” Carlos said.

After it was built, the oven was then transported from Guadalajara to Laredo. With a forklift and a U-Haul truck, Ayala picked up the oven in Laredo and drove it to Katy. It barely fit through El Canton Katy’s restaurant doors, Carlos said.

Carlos’ sister, Andrea Ayala, who is also an architect, helped design El Canton’s decorative features.

She devised the pizzeria’s intentionally homey feel because El Canton means “home,” where one is from.

The restaurant features chopped wood as a decorative accent both underneath the counters and on a geometric kitchen wall display.

“The wood that we use to cook [with] that was our inspiration,” Andrea said.

El Canton uses oak and pecan wood in its oven, sometimes chopping the wood at home, Carlos said.

Along with its specialty pizzas, the restaurant serves a selection of appetizers, salads, pastas as well as beer and wine. Carlos said he plans to keep changing the menu every six months. When El Canton started in Mexico, the group started off with Mexican recipes and getting customer feedback, he said.

“It’s been like an evolution,” Carlos said.

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