Molly worries for the Saint John SPCA

A rescue dog herself, Molly Bloom is very worried about the Saint John SPCA Animal Rescue and wants to know if you can help them. Although she was rescued by the SPCA up in Fredericton, she has lots of friends – dogs and cats and people – in Saint John. And she’s anxious for them!

Molly asks everyone to help the Saint John SPCA

She’s thrilled to know there has been loads of support for the Saint John SPCA but her concern is that it is a big task and there is so much more that is needed.

So Molly wants you to know you can follow the Saint John SPCA on Twitter (@SPCAAR) and you can like them on Facebook to follow their updates.

And you can also donate pretty easily online on the donation page on their web site.

Everything helps and everything is needed. Don’t let the doors close! Help out and let’s get that anxious look off Molly’s face!

(Urban Deli and Italian by Night will be doing something — we’ll keep you posted on what we plan!)

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The terrific two’s – our anniversary!

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:

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Best of Uptown Saint John

The night was wonderful; everyone was gracious. Winners of the Live Life Awards were announced and as far as we could tell, every body attending had a sensational time. We sure did.

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!

(Photo via Manchester Shoes Salon)

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Tonight’s the night – Live Life Awards

We’re pretty pumped up about tonight’s Live Life Awards put on by Uptown Saint John. We’re excited partly because the evening proceedings will be held “… in the minimalist ‘white room,’ an architectural gem located on the second floor of 115 Prince William Street.”

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!

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Up for Best Restaurant 2nd year running – Live Life Awards

The Uptown is buzzing today with the Live Life Awards nominations. We were thrilled to find ourselves nominated in the Best Restaurant of the Year category — but the competition is stiff! We’re in there with two of the Uptown’s best: Thandi’s and Saint John Ale House. (Congrats to both!)

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:

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!

 

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Imperial

If you’ve ever seen the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives), you’re probably aware that it was based on the play by Tennessee Williams (who apparently didn’t care for what the filmmakers did to his play).

Now you have a chance to see the play itself. The Saint John Theatre Company is putting it on at the Imperial Theatre, May 19th to 21st. Directed by Stephen Tobias, the play talks about mendacity (untruthfulness). A favourite quote is from the character Big Daddy, who says, “There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity…You can smell it. It smells like death.”

In describing the play, the SJ Theatre Company says,

On a Southern plantation a family celebrates the birthday of their patriarch.  A number of evils poison the gaiety: greed, sins of the past and desperate, clawing hopes for the future …

We bring all this up because Urban Deli is a sponsor of the play and had some tickets to give away for the opening night, Thursday the 19th. And they’ve now been drawn. The winner is Charles E. Frees-Melvin.  Congratulations Charles!

We hope every one can get out and catch the play. It’s one of Tennessee Williams best known plays and there are few better than Tennessee for arresting, lyrical language and drama.

One last thing … The cat reference? That would be the character known as Maggie, the cat (played by Liz Taylor in the film version; played by Emily Bartlett in the current stage production).

You can get more information on the play and order tickets at the Imperial Theatre. And if you want to read an article on the production, see ‘Intense family drama’ from CanadaEast.

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Some very belated congratulations

Good grief! Talk about late out of the gate … We’ve been so busy lately in the restaurant and with catering, we’ve fallen way behind on our site. That would be fine, such things happen when you’re a relatively small operation and there loads of things needing your attention, but we’ve neglected some people that should have been given a tip of the hat and a, “Well done!”

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:

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).

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