Pulled pork eggs benny on an English muffin served with deli potatoes. Home-made hollandaise sauce is gluten-free.

I was at the Urban Deli a few Saturdays ago for breakfast and went with an old standby – Eggs Benedict. Even though the Deli has a wonderful breakfast menu including Eggs Benny available four ways, I went with the traditional Eggs Benny – back bacon, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce (gluten-free) and Deli potatoes.

No, I’m not a foodie and I’ve not known for being adventurous when it comes to food.

Simply put, it was the best Eggs Benny I’ve had in years.

How does that happen?

So how does a restaurant make a breakfast staple like Eggs Benny a standout? I asked and the answer is this: the Urban Deli does just about everything themselves with the possible exception of laying the eggs.

The first thing I noticed was the English muffin. It was the freshest muffin I recall having Eggs Benedict on. The muffin may be the least noticed element in Eggs Benny. It’s usually just an English muffin. But when it’s as fresh and soft as mine was at the Urban Deli believe me, you notice. There’s a reason for that.

The Deli gets their bread delivered fresh every morning from City Road Bakery. (They are one of the four bakeries the Deli uses.)

Of course, there’s more to it than an English muffin. There are the eggs. Mine were poached perfectly. When I broke into them, the yoke spilled out to embrace and merge with the hollandaise like a teenager in love.

Speaking of hollandaise, at the Deli they make it from scratch. It’s not a sauce they have delivered from elsewhere. They put it together in the kitchen so it is homemade.

And it’s all served with our Deli potatoes — served for breakfast and a blend of grade-A Chef potatoes, sweet potatoes and leek.

Mimosa

When I lived in Edmonton there was a restaurant down the street from me where I would go on weekend mornings and have (you guessed it) Eggs Benedict. I got into the habit then of always getting a mimosa. I’m always surprised when I go into some restaurants for brunch and they don’t have it available. In some cases, they don’t even know what it is.

Mimosa is pretty simple. Orange juice and champagne. But again, the Urban Deli steps it up by doing it the right way. The orange juice at the Deli is freshly squeezed. They take the time to get the freshest juice possible by doing it themselves. (Fresh squeezed orange juice is only available Saturday mornings for the breakfast menu.)

Believe me, when you get a mimosa at the Deli, you can tell the difference.

Yes, I also had coffee. What’s breakfast without coffee? The Urban Deli’s comes from Red Whale and mine was freshly brewed and tasted the way coffee should taste and was beautifully aromatic.

If you get the sense that I enjoyed my breakfast at the Urban Deli you would be correct. I did. Actually, I loved it.

For me, the real test of skill and passion is in doing the most common and simple of things well. You do them well by paying attention to the details. Apart from bacon and eggs, what could be more common than Eggs Benedict for breakfast? What could be simpler than mimosa?

When you do the common and the simple in ways that make them rise above the usual; when you capture the essence of good food by working on getting the tastes and textures perfect, you aren’t just doing something right. You’re doing it with passion and focus.

At the Urban Deli, you can taste it.

(Note: Bill can’t claim to be completely impartial. He is a friend of the Urban Deli and helps them with their web site and social media. He is a writer, social media practitioner and maintains Writelife.)

Seafood chowder (gluten-free)

If you want to have a sense of some ocean fare, try some of the seafood items off our menu. We have a bowl of hot seafood chowder available which is great for those foggy Saint John days. It is served with a homemade buttermilk biscuit and consists of lobster, shrimp, scallops, haddock and salmon. This has become a popular choice for many of our customers especially when accompanied by a glass of white wine.

On a daily basis, we try to have a new quiche available and one of our specialties is our seafood medley. This quiche has the same ingredients as our chowder but also includes spinach and usually aged white cheddar cheese. It is served with your choice of side and topped off with a melted cheese sauce on top. Today it is available for order and these sell very fast!!

Other menu options include our sesame crusted seared tuna loin and our wild Pacific salmon burger. If you enjoy the tuna, it is also available on our romaine chiffonade salad served with wasabi vinaigrette.

Sesame crusted tuna steak burger

There are also endless opportunities available with catering or special events. Many seafood creations can be chosen from. We have made coconut shrimp, ceviche and excellent mini lobster rolls. Make any day/night special by calling us for catering, take-out or just stop by the restaurant to try any of our menu options.

This Saturday (August 21^st) we will be serving breakfast from 9am until noon and then our lunch menu will begin. This is going to be a special day since Elizabeth Rowe (owner of the Urban Deli) and John Mallory (owner of Kamiza Judo & Training Studio) will be getting married.

In order to celebrate this momentous event, the restaurant will be closing at 3pm. We would like to apologize to customers for cutting our hours .

From all the staff at Urban Deli, we wish Elizabeth & John all the best on their special day!

Lemon sour cream pies ready for catering

Delight your taste buds with any one of Urban Deli’s fabulous desserts. On a daily basis one of our desserts is being prepared from scratch in our prep-kitchen. Once they are pulled hot out of the oven, they are either used for catering, special events or to order in the restaurant. These creations are not purchased from a store and instead are made in-house to guarantee the flavour and quality.

The recipe for the chocolate brownie has evolved over time in order to produce a chewy, ooey, gooey, chocolaty delight. The molten chocolate cake is excellent for dark chocolate lovers and has a hot inner lava filling. These are both served with chocolate sauce and real whipped cream.

Chocolate brownie

Freshly cut apples are put into the apple crumble along with the other traditional ingredients such as rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Served hot! The option to add vanilla ice-cream is available to make the dining experience more enjoyable.

The two highlights are always the moist carrot cake (cream cheese icing inside and out) and the lemon sour cream pie (sweet yet tart). Cheesecake is also available and at times we produce a chef’s creation. These desserts change on a regular basis.

Molten chocolate cake

If you are going to have one of these desserts at Urban Deli, have them accompanied by a hot coffee (from our producer Red Whale) or tea. They are great for sharing and are available to take home. Just make sure you make time to try at least one.

There was a very nice article in here magazine yesterday about Liz and the Urban Deli. If you missed it, have a look:

• The Urban Deli’s hustle and bustle

Yes, that’s the Deli’s story.

Speaking of hustle and bustle, we’ve been pretty active lately with the restaurant and our catering. We’ve also made a few small changes to our site. One of those was to keep our menus as downloadable files (.pdf) but to also put them into regular web page formats. So under menu in our navigation, you’ll see all our menus:

• Main menu
• Beverages & desserts
• Weekend breakfast
• Gluten free product list

We think it’s a bit easier that way because you may not want to download a file just to see what we offer.

Saint John, New Brunswick has been experiencing an excellent summer season. The sunny weather has incited many to heat up their barbeques, crack a cold beer (or non-alcoholic drink) and socialize.

At Urban Deli we have customers that come in specifically to enjoy our applewood smoked ribs (available as a half or full rack). What is really intriguing about our ribs (and many customers do not know this) is that they are available to be purchased and taken home to be re-heated.

Ribs after a five hour smoking process

This means you can throw it on the barbie and really impress your guests when they arrive.

These ribs are given special attention from the very beginning (starting first with their five hour smoking process which is done on-site) and so has our BBQ sauce.

Great care is taken to ensure the right flavours come through and since our BBQ sauce is made from scratch, we have been able to certify that it is gluten-free.

Half rack of applewood smoked ribs served with your choice of side

Each set of ribs purchased are pre-marinated in our BBQ sauce and we even give you enough on the side for basting or dipping purposes when you pick them up to take home.

So when you are thinking about heating up that barbeque or grabbing a case of cold beer, remember that even with a busy schedule you can always stop by or pre-order our ribs.

Add any of our appetizers (like our roasted garlic and artichoke dip), side salads, hand-cut deli frites to your order or get one of our fabulous desserts.

Take all the credit, we really don’t mind.

There’s no time like summer for barbecues and there’s nothing like ribs for putting the scent of summer in the air and floating through the neighbourhood.

It seems as if we opened our doors yesterday and today woke up to find ourselves one year old. Does time really move that quickly? Apparently — especially when you’re trying to serve food!

The Urban Deli opened on July 13, 2009. One year later, we’re still here.

It’s fascinating what happens while you’re busy. We’ve had lots of customers come into the Deli and in what seems the blink of an eye some have become regulars, many have become friends, and our staff have become family.

But what has most amazed us has been the way Saint John has welcomed and taken us in, and how Uptown Saint John has made us a part of one of the most exciting and growing communities anywhere in the country.

“Thank you Saint John,” doesn’t come close to saying how grateful we are to the Port City but, thank you Saint John!

And a huge thank you to our staff — not just for the work you do, but the way you do it.

Year one is behind us; the future is ahead and wide open. We’re loving it!

To our friends in Fredericton, who we understand are experiencing some rather toasty weather, and to our friends a bit more inland in Saint John … Cool off in our Uptown! Pay us a visit – the weatherman tells us it won’t be quite so hot here.

And if you make the trip, you could pay us a visit at the Deli. (This is where we insert a shameless plug.) And maybe try a glass of our scratch lemonade (made with real lemons):

Unless you would prefer our ice-tea (made with a blend of teas and cranberry juice):

Our the root beer on tap that we get from our friends at Pump House:

If you can’t make it down, be sure to get out, wherever you are, and enjoy our wonderful Maritime weather – be it hot and humid, or a little cooler – but still humid. Enjoy your day!

(By the way … we also have root beer floats!)

Urban Deli will be celebrating its first year in business on July 13^th.  We are also celebrating a year anniversary for two very special team members: Dale and Candy.

Food wise, everything at the Urban Deli begins with Dale and Candy who we label ‘the ladies from the second floor.’

The ladies work daily to consistently prepare our customer’s favourite menu items.  From our daily quiche, pulled pork BBQ sauce, gluten-free cheese sauce to our very popular maple vinaigrette and wasabi vinaigrette dressings, split pea and ham soup, homemade buttermilk biscuits, deli mustard right through to our muffuletta ‘muff-uh-LET-uh, Deli burgers and of course the piece de resistance….our homemade desserts.

A meal without one of the Urban Deli desserts by Dale is incomplete.  Dale’s repertoire of desserts include and are not limited to; Our very popular carrot cake with filling, lemon sour cream pie, apple crumble, chocolate molten cake and cookies.  From our second floor you can find Candy and Dale working hard at squeezing lemons for our scratch lemonade or brewing our famous ice tea made from five tea blends.

Many of our products have been tweaked and fine tuned by the ladies so they can capture the right consistency.  Recipes at the Deli are always evolving and we always welcome customer feedback. For everyone at the Deli there is more to our food; It is both an art and a science.

Recipes to success are simple…hire team members like Candy and Dale who:

• Want to be at work
• Have a sense of humour
• Are very reliable/committed
• Have strong communication, organizational and time management skills
• Want to have fun and can laugh at themselves first J
• Don’t take things personally…because receiving ongoing feedback for the purpose of fine-tuning recipes in order to deliver a consistently great product to our customer is critical to everyone’s success

Thank you Dale and Candy and we look forward to celebrating year two with each of you!

… And it all started with a incredible Canada Day in Uptown Saint John. Even the dogs were caught up in the feeling we call Canada.

The Deli had a little setup in front of the UD (the restaurant was closed) where we sold breakfast and pulled pork sandwiches outside the doors. We also had cold drinks like our scratch lemonade and ice-tea. It was a fun way to be working and being out meeting people enjoying the day. We have photos on our Facebook page here.

The photo above of Lianne and Liz and our extraordinary helpful helper was just one of loads of photos Beaver Smith took (many thanks!). If you want to really see what Saint John’s Uptown looked like on this Canada day, have a look at his photos.