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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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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Another wonderful Friday

You know what’s great about a Friday? It’s Friday! We’re moving into the weekend!

We’ve a couple of off the cuff reminders … Lunch is on and its tasty, but we’re also open until 9:00pm today so if you’re going to the Millrats game, why not start it off at the Deli for dinner? We have a melt in your mouth Reuben Sandwich with corned beef, swiss cheese, & sauerkraut, bacon & onion topping on marble rye bread.

And staying with the mouth watering theme … our ham & Swiss cheese is piled high on our sour dough bread … all worth the walk!

We’re also open tomorrow for our usual Saturday breakfast, 9:00am to noon. It makes for a very nice way of getting your Saturday started.

And finally, don’t forget to cast your vote for The Saltys, Saint John’s first social media awards. They’re a way to celebrate our city’s social media community. There are four categories, and Urban Deli is nominated in one of them, Best Use of Social Media in a Campaign.

Voting closes at noon Wednesday, February 16. Winners will be announced at a very fun night planned for the 17th at the Saint John Ale House. So vote soon!

And have a fabulous weekend! We hope to see you!

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Over the moon with our social media nomination

Saint John has its first ever social media awards, The Saltys – a celebration of the Saint John Social Media Community. It’s set for February 17 just down the road from us at the Saint John Ale House. And guess what? Urban Deli is a nominee! We’re over the moon!

We’re nominated in the category “Best Use of Social Media in a Campaign” for customer engagement. Actually, it’s really our customers who should be getting the tip of the hat. You guys have been fabulous on our blog, Facebook page and on Twitter. And you’ve kept us on our toes!

We’re not always as on top of things as we would like. Being a small operation, our main focus is the kitchen and the restaurant, so we can’t always be engaging people online to the extent we would like to. So for the record, we would like to say a big “Thank you!” to everyone for the RTs and wonderful comments we’ve seen in our feeds.

Huge congratulations as well to all the nominees in all the categories. Looking at the list is a bit like looking at a list of friends. We’re pretty sure we know everyone there.

Urban Deli has been using social media for some time now. We started on Twitter in March of 2009 – that’s almost two years ago – and started our Facebook page not long after. It was lot of figuring out how to use this social media thing (we bumbled a lot with the Facebook part initially) but it became very clear, very soon that social media was about one thing: people.

So it really is a lot like being in the restaurant where we get to interact with our customers face to face. With social media, we do the same thing, just not face to face.

Once again, we’re very excited that Saint John now has its own social media awards — The Saltys — and even more excited to see we’ve been nominated.

By the way, the online voting is now on. Cast your vote while you can and we hope to see all of you February 17 for the big party!

Thank you again Saint John!

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Awards time in Uptown Saint John

The 2010 Live Life Awards are on and there is a restaurant category where oodles of nominations are flowing in. You can add your voice by dropping in and having your say on the “Best Restaurant of the Year” in the Uptown area.

Of course, we’ve a particular bias. 🙂

But there are so many fabulous places to eat in Saint John’s Uptown, we’re thrilled to be one of them. This isn’t a competition so much as it’s a celebration of what we have and what we’re building on in the Uptown.

By the way, there will be a ceremony June 24 at the Saint John Theatre Company. You can get information on it, as well as information on getting a ticket to the event, by visiting the 2010 Live Life Awards web site. In their words, “… we’re having a party.”

In the meantime, if you want to nominate a restuarant, the place to go is here (simply add it as a comment).

One last note … Urban Deli also qualifies in a couple of other categories. Such as New Business of the Year (we opened last July) and Commercial Space of the Year. If you want to toss a nomination our way, we’d love to get it!

(Photo of the Urban Deli is by Beaver Smith, bigdayfoto, Saint John.)

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