The food is a rich, deep-layered selection of Italy’s finest.

We’re open every Wednesday through Friday evening for Italian by Night and invite you to join us on this amazing adventure in cuisine.

You’ll find our menu here. (Or click our chef on the left.)

To book a reservation, please call us at 506-652-3354.

We also have an extensive wine list — all Italian — of reds, whites and sparkling wines.

We’re eager to see you and to hear your comments, questions and suggestions. Join us on our Italian adventure! Food should be shared and we would love to share ours with you.

Kitchen work: Andrew and Michelle. (Photo: - bite - bitebymichelle.com)

Urban Deli's chef, Andrew Brewer.

Urban Deli’s man behind the scenes – our chef – is Andrew Brewer, a long time Maritimer and New Brunswick native.

Born up the river a bit in Fredericton (1981), Andrew was raised close to the provincial capital in Stanley where he first gained cooking experience by helping out at his Aunt’s senior’s complex – at the age of 8!

But it was Andrew’s mom who inspired him most when it came to cooking.

She provided fabulous home cooked meals and what Andrew considers the best rolls and bread ever and so did the community. Andrew also worked at a dairy farm from the age of 14.

His first official cooking job was at the age of 16 when he began working at Keystone Kellys in Fredericton. Now his culinary journey was truly underway.

This was followed by culinary school in St. Andrews, where he graduated in 1999. This was immediately succeeded by a stint at L’Europe, in St. Andrews, where he spent two seasons working under Chef Marcus Ritter in his fine dining restaurant. Then Andrew ventured west.

He went to Alberta where he worked at Zenari’s in Edmonton, an Italian lunch restaurant and catering in the downtown core.

Long time Maritimer and New Brunswick native, Andrew Brewer - chef at Urban Deli.

But home is where the heart is and Andrew returned to New Brunswick where he finished his Red Seal Chef certificate in 2005 while working at Little Louis Oyster Bar under Chef Stephen Houston, CCC.

Andrew has also been employed at Cora’s for opening restaurants in the Atlantic Region, the Fairmont Algonquin in St. Andrews, Billy’s Seafood Company and as Director of Food Services at Point Lepreau Generation Station..

Andrew first began his relationship with Urban Deli when he returned to our friends at Billy’s Seafood while also working part-time at the Deli. In 2010, Andrew took some time away from working and headed to Costa Rica for the winter. He came back to the Maritimes and Saint John in May of 2011, and has been working at Urban Deli ever since as our Chef.

And we’re glad to have him!

On Friday and Saturday they’re going to be taping at our friends, Saint John Ale House. On Sunday and Monday, they’re taping here at Urban Deli.

We’d love for you to join us for Monday’s taping (the 17th), during lunch 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. But please call us and make a reservation at 652-3354.

And what’s this Food Network show all about? Two words: comfort food. Here’s how they describe it:

You Gotta Eat Here! sends our charming, funny and food-obsessed host, comedian John Catucci, on a quest to find Canada’s most delicious, mouthwatering, over-the-top comfort food.  He’s visiting great joints, greasy spoons, and legendary restaurants to taste the food that made them famous, and to meet the colourful characters that make each one of them institutions.

It should be fun. John Catucci is a pretty funny guy and it sounds as if he knows his comfort food. We’re fired up with the idea of them coming to see us and we hope you’ll join us so we can give them a real Uptown Saint John welcome. Hope to see you Monday!

The Urban Deli Original Montreal Style Smoked Meat. (Photo - Urban Deli)

Up until the first week or so of July 2009, Urban Deli only existed in the head of our owner Liz. Then, on July 13, 2009, it was real.

Yes, today is our birthday! It’s Urban Deli’s second anniversary!

We’ve had another wonderful year with the restaurant and our catering. It’s been a year filled with intriguing people and superb events.

We absolutely love being a part of Uptown Saint John. As with last year, we have oodles of people to thank: our fabulous staff, the tremendous vendors and suppliers we get to work with and, of course, the people of Saint John. Our customers are fabulous.

As small thank you, today we have free samples of our desserts with your meal. So we hope you drop by and give us a chance to say, “Thanks!”

And just in case your interested, below is a list of what visitors to the Deli appear to liked best from our menu in our last year.

Our top stuff in our second year!

Top sandwiches:

• Club Sandwich
• Montreal style Smoked Meat
• Rueben
• Deli Meatloaf Sandwich
• Ham & Swiss

Top burger:

• UD Veggie Burger

Top soups:

• UD Seafood Chowder

Top salads:

• Spinach Salad
• Romaine Chiffonade (seared tuna steak salad)

Top appetizer:

• Roasted Garlic & Artichoke Dip

Tops from the smoked side of house:

• Deli Ribs

Urban Deli Iced Tea.

Top Drinks:

• Urban Deli Iced Tea
• Coke products (in old fashioned Coke bottles)

Top Desserts:

• Carrot Cake
• Lemon Sour Cream Pie (came a close 2nd)

Top Breakfast:

• The Deli Breakfast
• Pulled Pork Eggs Benny

And that’s a wrap … Now we’re diving into year three.

Also see:

• We’re one year old – Whoo hoo! (2010)
• Yes, today is the day (2009)

Congratulations to our friends at Thandi’s! They walked away with the award for Best Restaurant of the Year. There were three of us in the category — Thandi’s, Saint John Ale House and Urban Deli.

We’d be disappointed except we were thrilled. Thandi’s is a great representative of the Uptown’s best. As is SJ Ale House.

It was our second year being nominated in that category so we’re hoping third time’s the charm.

Apart from our congratulations to all the people and businesses that won (and all the nominees), we’d like to let everyone at Uptown Saint John know we truly appreciate all the time, effort and commitment they put into the Live Life Awards and everything they’re doing for the Uptown. Now, here are all the winners!

• 2011 Live Life Award Winners

(Photo via Manchester Shoes Salon)

And we’re excited because we’re up for an award.

In the ‘Best Restaurant’ category, the nominees are Saint John Ale House, Thandi’s and yours truly, Urban Deli. Best of luck to all three of us!

It’s worth having a look at all the nominees in all the categories. It’s a marvelous cornucopia of the Uptown’s great businesses and some of the exceptional accomplishments over the last year.

If you’re attending the glam event, we hope to see you there. We’ll be on hand and hope to say ‘Hi!’ to everyone.

See you tonight!

Having enjoyed time at both, we can attest to the fact that both are very deserving — we love the food at both! Uptown is the place to be for Saint John’s best dining. Of course, we’re a bit biased on that subject.

Last year, we found ourselves in three categories, including Best Restaurant. Thandi’s was also nominated last year. As it turns out, in 2010 Opera Bistro took the top honours for Best Restaurant.

You can go over all the categories and all the nominees on the Uptown Saint John site. Or you can let Tracy tell you all about them:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Winners will be announced at the gala event on June 9th. Tickets are available at the Uptown Saint John offices at 40 King Street or by calling 633-9797.

Congratulations to all the nominees in all the categories. Let’s all celebrate by getting out and living life in Uptown Saint John!

Published by Oberon Press, Urban Deli just received the most wonderful letter from them. The letter reads, in part:

“This year your restaurant has been chosen as one of the best in the country by the national restaurant guide … Our people travel Canada from coast to coast and pick the best restaurants in every city and town in the country.”

Wow! We’re thrilled! We’re less than two years old (we opened July 13, 2009) and this is an incredible honour.

If you’re not familiar with Where to Eat in Canada (edited by Anne Hardy), it’s a book that has been coming out for over 40 years. It lists, as the title says, the best places to eat across the country. Over 400 pages, many people take it with them in their travels — in a glove compartment, backpack, whatever they have. It’s the go-to reference for foodies.

So if you’re out west, you know where to eat when you’re in Victoria, Calgary or Saskatoon. Travelling in Quebec? The book recommends the best places to eat. And when you’re in the Maritimes, especially down Saint John way, you know about Urban Deli!

They tell us the newest edition (2011, with Urban Deli in it) will be available in early June. We’re anxious to see it and read what they had to say. We’ll keep you up to date on that!

In the meantime, we’re sending a big thank you to our customers and fabulous staff. You guys are the reason we’re in there and you’re the reason we love what we do!

One last aside … we love this line from the letter they sent us: “Nobody can buy his way into this guide and nobody can buy his way out.”

Sounds good to us!

Director of 'Black Comedy', Scott Thomas (photo: Noel Chenier/Telegraph-Journal)

We’ve just given away a pair of tickets to Thursday’s performance of Black Comedy, written by Peter Shaffer and on the main stage at the Imperial Theatre. The tickets are thanks to the Saint John Theatre Company and it should be an intriguing and funny show.

Scott Thomas will be directing and the Telegraph-Journal tells us it is his directorial debut and he is, “… the founder of Improvisation Corporation, a group of comedic improvisers who perform a variety of shows and formats around the city.”

Our winner is Kim Atkinson of Saint John. She was pretty excited about winning the tickets. Thanks to everyone who filled out ballots at the restaurant! And by the way …

You don’t have to win tickets to see Black Comedy. It runs Thursday through Saturday this week, March 17 to 19, and you can get tickets by calling the Imperial at 674-4100.

We’re referring to this year’s The Saltys, Saint John’s first ever social media awards. It was thrilling for us because we found ourselves nominated in one of the categories. It was completely unexpected and we we’re thrilled. We didn’t grab the top honour but, as they say at the Oscars, we got a real charge out of the nomination and felt privileged to me in the running.

We want to send a big congratulations out to this year’s winners:

• Anne McShane (@feelgoodsj) — Twitter Person of the Year
• Hemmings House Pictures — Best Facebook Page
• Saint John Ale House, Peter Stoddart – Coolest Blog
• Mel Norton Campaign Team — Best Use of Social Media in a Campaign

Mel won in the category we found ourselves in and we think it was well-deserved. The big night was held at SJAH, just down the street from us. Fran made it to the big night but Bill was stuck up in Frederiction. (They’re the two helping out with our social media efforts.)

Once again, “Bravo!” to all the winners and nominees. This is meant to be an annual event, so we’re looking forward to next year’s awards and hope this thing just grows and grows (kind of like social media itself).