Just call him the wizard of sandwicherie (say it with me, sand-witch-er-ee).
Joel Thornton opened Side Cuts Sandwicherie and Saloon in Maumee in September.
He’s concocted culinary combinations for sandwiches that are creatively named after area parks, like Cannonball Prairie and Swan Creek.
“I am a sandwich person, connoisseur,” he said, adding that a good deli place was lacking in the area. “This was something that was needed around here.”
Mr. Thornton, who is 48, is the fourth generation of his Maumee family. His first job was at Koral Hamburg, and he’s spent more than 20 years at the Village Idiot, working for John and Nikki Schafer. He started there as in 2001 doing odds and ends, tended bar, and still works in the office of the pizza pub.
He started thinking seriously about opening Side Cuts in early 2023. He nailed down the location that summer, and construction started in the fall on the former office site of the Lucas Soil & Water Conservation District.
“All this construction is brand new — the kitchen, the hood equipment, HVAC, all of it’s brand new,” Mr. Thornton said, adding that he and his father, Bill, raised the floor four inches to make it handicapped accessible.