Yes, we’ve got our Saturday breakfast menu up

People have asked if we have our Saturday breakfast menu online and until now, the answer has been, “Not yet.” The reason is simple: we hadn’t finalized it. We were tweaking, trying this and that, getting the opinions of people who had come in for breakfast on Saturdays and finding out what they actually wanted (and if we could accommodate that).

But it’s settled now. (Until we start tweaking again!) And we have it online as a .pdf file.

Now, when you go to our menu page or when you take a gander at our right column under menu, you’ll see the link.

Apologies for taking so long in getting it up but we wanted to get it right. We think we have now.

But of course, you’ll be the judge. 🙂

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A few additions to the beverage menu

Pumphouse brewery logoWe’ve made a few additions to the beverage menu — beers to be specific.

Continuing our efforts to keep things close to home (as in, New Brunswick), we’ve added a few items from our friends at Pump House. They are:

  • Draft Blueberry Ale
  • Draft Fire Chief Red
  • Pump House’s original Root Beer Soda

These are joining what we already have on our beverage menu, which are:

  • Moosehead light
  • Pump House Red
  • Picaroons – Blonde, Stormy and Seasonal

We also have our sodas, iced drinks, waters, juices as well as milk, coffees and teas — all of which you can see on our menu (see the beverage menu link – it will bring up a .pdf file).

Our hope is that we’ve got all the bases covered for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. (Yes, we have wines too.)

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Our Valentine’s Day menu

Tomorrow is that special day so tonight we have a reserved seating Valentine’s Day dinner. If you’d like to see what is on the menu, we’ve uploaded it. You can visit our Menu page or you can download it here (.pdf format):

Valentine’s Day menu

You’ll see there are a few choices, including a ‘chopping board sampler,’ as well as a couple of entrees.

Unfortunately, we have to be brief here because today’s a busy day. We hope you and your Valentine have a fabulous Valentine’s Day weekend!

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A night in December at the Deli

It’s the season for get-togethers and last night we hosted Avant-Garde Construction and Management Inc. for their Christmas party. If you look at the photo below you’ll see they were seated at our long communal table.

What kind of food might be involved at a Christmas party at the Urban Deli? For Avant-Garde it began with appetizers. We served up roasted garlic and artichoke dip, bacon  wrapped scallops and char crusted pork tenderloin. There was also a choice of seafood chowder, spinach salad, caesar salad, or house salad.

For the main course guests had a choice of smoked whole lobster (smoked in house, at the Deli), rack of ribs, smoked herb crusted 1/2 chicken accompanied by rice garlic mashed potatoes or fries (our potato frites).

And for dessert it was a choice of molten chocolate cake, our now famous sour cream lemon pie or a candy cane cheese cake.

We also had some evening musical entertainment provided by Jessica Darrah.

And that was our Saturday night at the Urban Deli. A big thank you to everyone, including our wonderful staff, and a Merry Christmas to Avant-Garde!

Avant Garde at the Urban Deli.

The Avant Garde Christmas party at the Urban Deli. That's our Liane on the left and way off in the background you can see Jessica Darrah performing. Photo via Gord's phone.

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Stephanie’s torch and our new system

Stephanie from the Urban Deli with her Olympic torch.We mentioned that our own Stephanie was one of the torch bearers when the Olympic flame came through Saint John on Tuesday. Well, this is her!

She came by the next day to show us her torch so we made her dress up in her torch carrier outfit and pose outside for a picture or two. From the way she talks, it was a thrilling experience!

On another topic, you may be interested in some of what we’ve been up to behind the scenes. We’ve put in place a new ordering system to help us be a bit quicker and more efficient. So a big thank you to John and the guys from Atlantic Hospitality & Technologies. They came down to help set it up and show us how the darned thing works. As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to use.

Even more interesting is the online ordering system they’re helping us get in place. (It’s part of the whole system.) We don’t have date yet for when it will be in place but it will be soon. Basically, we’ve got to do a little grunt work to put all our menu information into the system. But once done, you’ll be able to order here, at the Urban Deli site. And what will that mean?

For one thing, if you’re thinking take-out, you can just place your order then come in when it’s ready. If you’re having a meeting over lunch and want food to feed everyone, order then just pop in and pick it up or have us deliver it. If you want the Urban Deli to cater an event, party or something else, you can set it all up online. Of course, you’ll still be able to phone us but we think the ease of the online system will appeal to busy people.

So that is one of the things we have in the works. One last thing, if you’re in Uptown Saint John on Saturday night, we have Marvin Rathburn performing here at the Deli starting at 8:00 pm. If you get a chance, pop by!

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A new page for our catering

We should have created a page for the catering side of the Urban Deli a while ago. We’ve actually been doing catering from when we opened, and Liz was even doing it before that. Now, finally, we have a page for it. (You’ll see a catering tab in the navigation up at the top.)

It seemed something we needed to do given the time of year and the various parties, office gatherings and other events and occasions that will be coming up. If you’re the poor soul given the task of setting something up for your office or friends and you’re scratching your head, you can give us a call and we may be able to help you with ideas (506.652.3354).

We also have a few other things in the works to help us be quicker and more efficient but we won’t speak of that until it’s in place. But we’re pretty sure you’ll like it.

Oh, and getting back to catering … as our page mentions, it’s based on our menu but we also go “off menu” depending on what you’re looking for. We’re always up for trying new things!

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Smoking good time in New York

Yesterday we mentioned that Mike and Gord had been south of the border, in New York, taking a course (Charcuterie, Smokehouse, and Condiment Workshop).

We asked Gord to tell us a bit about it, and here’s what he had to say:

It was a great experience even for a neophyte cook like me, albeit a little intimidating at times …

The school itself is amazing (The Culinary Institute of America). Located on the banks of the Hudson River, the main campus building reminded everyone of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Hall with its high ceilings and dark rich wood paneling. The region boasts some notable estates: the Roosevelt estate and Presidential Library and the Vanderbilt estate both are within a few miles for the campus.

From a workshop perspective … the first hour or so was spent in a class room environment to understand the science of smoking, curing and sausage making, then the balance of the day (about 6 hours) was spent in the kitchen.

There were five  teams of three. We were given a progressive menu to work on through the week. Some of the items were:

  • barbequed beef brisket
  • pork loin kassler
  • carolina bbq pork
  • gravlax
  • pastrami
  • confit of duck
  • duck breast bacon
  • kansas city spareribs
  • tete pressee (prepared pig’s head)
  • beef jerky
  • tasso
  • pate campagne
  • smoke chorizo
  • kielbasa rings and links
  • garlic sausage creole beef and veal daube
  • smoked pheasant sausage
  • leberkase
  • kassler liverwurst
  • pate grand-mere

The Urban Deli's Gord.Believe it or not, that’s just a partial list. There were others on it, plus a number of condiments, marinades and rubs.

As a result of the course, we’ll likely be refining a few of the menu items plus looking at adding a few others once the recipes have been perfected in house. Yes, we had a fabulous time!

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