Business & Tech

A Cut Above Deli in Canton All About Following Your Dreams

Robert Lawson started A Cut Above Deli back in 1996, and what started as a desire to work on his own has become a full-time business.

Lawson said he started the business after he went as far he felt he could in the corporate restaurant world, and decided to try something different.

“I had reached the top of the corporate ladder after so many years, and I decided to move on,” he said. “It was a big change.”

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Lawson said he worked at a few other places first, including a deli, and opened up shop almost 20 years ago.

“I kind of knew what I wanted to do with it,” he said.

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Lawson attributed his long career in the restaurant business to both his own skill, luck and a bit of help.

“I think I got in the at the right time, “ he said. “Plus my parents helped even before I had employees. My dad answered the while my mother was the cashier.”

Lawson said his employees, when they came, were a big help for him in Canton, both in serving and getting to know the town.

“We know all our regulars by name,” he said. “Whether it’s myself or my cashier. She’s been here almost 16 years now, and she knows everybody.”

Lawson said he started out doing what he loved, making food. Lawson said they make homemade food as much as they possible, and use Boar’s Head Meats for their sandwiches.

Lawson said they also do quite a lot of catering, and it was a big help early on.

He said the biggest steady business was doing the catering for the Judge Rottenberg Center, a special needs school in Canton.

“I was preparing their lunches and dinner, and it was quite an endeavor,” he said. “We were feeding 250 students.”

Lawson said he still does a lot of catering, but since then the school expanded their cafeteria and hired an all vegan chef. While Lawson said he knows how to cook vegan, it was just too much to do at the school while still running his deli.

“It’s 250 kids, and to prepare something like that vegan style is very difficult,” he said.

But it helped prepare him to cater out to many private and public events. Lawson said he has an eight-burner grill he takes out.

“We cater to the local baseball teams when they had their season,” he said. We go down there and they go like crazy.”

Lawson added he will grill anything possible, and if he needs to, depending on specifications, he will rent out another grill to accommodate.

“You just can’t cook certain items at different temperatures with an eight-burner grill,” he said.

Lawson said he donates to the Salvation Army Basketball Tournament every year and to local schools.

A Cut Above Deli is located at 1036 Turnpike St. and is open 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.



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