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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Our staff are on fire

We want to offer a quick high five to our own Stephanie who works here at the Deli. She was part of the Olympic Torch relay that made its way through Saint John yesterday (it’s headed to Freddy Beach as we write). A single mom who works here at Urban Deli, we were pretty impressed at the training she had to put in to get the torch carrying gig.

We’ve got a few pics of Steph and we’ve asked her (in the nicest way possible!) to throw together a few words about what was involved in carrying the torch. We’re hoping she can put a little something together in the next few days.

In the meantime, once again, way to go Stephanie!

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Online and on target with Uptown Saint John

You may have already heard, Uptown Saint John (or Uptown SJ) has a new site and it’s pretty exciting. If you go there, you’ll see the Urban Deli is in there now. We haven’t populated it with a lot of info and what not yet, but give us time!

So, why should you even care? It depends on whether you, like us, care about Uptown Saint John and all that seems to be going on these days. The Uptown SJ site helps pull everything and everyone together.

For one thing, there is an events calendar to help stay on top of what’s coming up. You’ll find where to dine when you’re uptown (like the Urban Deli!), links to arts, culture, places to stay and so on. You’ll find information on what the Uptown is doing on the environmental front with a link to Green Feet, “the environment committee for Uptown Saint John.” (You’ll also find info on parking and transit.)

What’s fun to watch with a site like this, because it’s so new, is how it grows and develops. Uptown SJ is taking hold of all the social media tools from blogs to Facebook to Twitter and more, and pulling it together so we can all be on top of all the wonderful developments, changes and events happening in Uptown Saint John.

It’s really kind of cool.

(One last thing … you can follow Uptown Saint John on Twitter with @uptownsaintjohn and the Urban Deli with @urbandeli).

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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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What we were up to on the weekend

Once again, we had a good time on Saturday with food and music. Our man Wes reports:

It was a great gig on Saturday night with Andrew Clark and, yes, it was recorded. Andrew and I (Wes) are going to listen to some tracks today to see if a live album is in the mix.

Andrew was “spot on” as he played till 11:00pm. It was a good mix of songs, from originals to covers that ranged from Mark Knofler to John Denver. And there was story told for every song.

His guitar work was stunning and vocal and whistling was a “buttery” as ever.

Coming up next at the Urban Deli? Wes tells us it will be Bare Bones. (Details to follow, as the expression goes.)

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Music tomorrow night

Just a reminder that tomorrow night at 8:00 pm we’ll be welcoming Andrew Clark to the Urban Deli for another of our musical Saturday nights. He’s from across the pond (Leeds) and our music guru Wes tells us, “His vocals have been compared to Roger Whittaker meets James Taylor.” Should be interesting!

Hope you can join us!

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A wrap and a jam (food and music)

What a week! The Chop Chop “Feast”-ival is a wrap and it sounds like a lot of people enjoyed a lot of good food from a lot of Uptown’s diverse restaurants. Including the Urban Deli! We received some really nice compliments about our Montreal Smoked Meat pizza.

Terry WhalenAnd wow! Did we ever have fun Saturday night with Terry Whalen and his performance. Our music man Wes Jagoe joined him later, as did a few others, and they were jamming for quite some time. Here’s what our man Wes had to say:

Terry Whalen’s performance Saturday night was a roller coaster mix of good old rockin’ country and grass roots blues right from the delta itself; a one man army not afraid to chance the trenches for the sake of the song.

His own songs were well delivered pieces of love and woe tapestries, all introduced by a story. Terry performed a great range of music. Yes, from AC/DC’s “It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll,” all the way to John Cougar’s “Pink Houses.”  And it was all glued together with an oozing baritone tinge.

Hats off to a great performance.

Saturday coming up, we’ll have Andrew Clark and we expect we’ll have just as much fun. Hope you can join us!

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