King Street reboot – living it up, uptown

There is story in the Telegraph-Journal today that highlights the Urban Deli as it talks about, “… a resurgence of commercial activity on King Street, the spine of the uptown core.” The story is I’d like a King Street redo, hold the pickle and even has a pic of Liz and the deli.

We’re pretty sure that with the other businesses on King and with the kind of activity we’re seeing that it won’t be long before people are asking, “Is this the same King Street? There are so many people! So much going on!”

Well, if Liz and her team have anything to do with it, that will be the case.

Although only open a few days, we’ve seen loads of people, heard lots of stories and made a huge number of new friends. One thing that seems to catch the eye of the people who come in is our Muffuletta sandwich.

Now, you can search it on the web and find out what it is but what you probably won’t see are details on the Urban Deli’s take on the Muffuletta. So we’re trying to get Liz’s sister (who is kind of an encyclopedia of food) to sit down and write us a brief description that we can post.

Hopefully she will soon (despite running around all day helping out at the deli) and we can put that online for you.

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Preview night at the Urban Deli

Wow! What a great night! After a day getting ready, the Urban Deli hosted a private evening for friends and other guests and we had a ball.

Our Flickr account is full of some pics from the evening, some are not as good as we’d like but that’s due to the kitchen and every one else moving so quickly and purposefully. They were busy bees, so to speak. But everyone had fun. And it felt wonderful to finally get everything going and serving food, our raison d’être.

There’s no way to list everyone who dropped by to say ‘Hi!’ and wish us well. This post would go on forever if we did.

Smoked meat sandwiches from the Urban Deli kitchen.

For example, Peter from Happinez (the winebar over on Princess) came by, as did Jason from Billy’s Seafood in the City Market and Sean from Red Whale Coffee (who supplies our coffees and teas – if coffee or tea is your thing, he’s the guy to talk to) … We could go on and on. (Oh yes, Christoph from CM Woodcraft Inc. –  he’s the man who built our incredible communal table – he paid us a visit too. And the table was a huge success!)

Let’s just say Liz and everyone at the Urban Deli thank all of you – it made us feel fabulous! And we hope to keep seeing you, and everyone else in Saint John and elsewhere on Monday and onward, when we’re open and doing our thing every day.

(Menu will be up on the site later today.)

I think, if nothing else, we can say this about the night – everyone was stuffed! Thanks to the kitchen and thanks again to everyone who came by!

(By the way … Sorry if this post comes off as giddily schmoozy or something like that, but we honestly had a blast followed by a sense of great relief – and we really do have about a gazillion people to thank.)

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Preparing ourselves (and our deli)

Urban Deli awning seen as you head toward the harbour front.Yes, we’ve neglected urbandeli.ca as we’ve been busily getting the Urban Deli (the actual restaurant) ready for the opening, which we’re hoping will be the end of June. And it will be, barring the unforeseen … You know, like earthquake, alien invasions or similar unplanned for calamities.

It hasn’t all been hammers and nails over here on King, however. A week or two ago Liz and her compadres made a trip to New York City (where her sister, Michael-ann, lives). It wasn’t a pleasure trip (though it was loads of fun). Liz was doing some “research” of NYC delis and picking up some necessities for the restaurant, like a steamer, plates and bowls and other equipment. We’ll do a separate post on the New York trip soon. Today, we’re just letting you know that while we’re working on getting the restaurant ready, we’re also getting our bums in gear as far as the site goes.

By the way, you’ll find a nice piece about us in the June edition of Streetscope, the monthly newsletter from Uptown Saint John. It’s the “New Business Feature – The Urban Deli.” It’s great feeling we’re a part of the city’s uptown!

Lastly, we had an absolutely fabulous time at the Fundy Food Festival here in Saint John last Saturday. We were giving people a taste of our ribs but at the same time we were tasting some of the foods other restaurants and food related businesses were providing. The chefs in SJ are absolutely incredible.

Does everyone in Saint John realize how good the food is here? As the saying goes, “To die for …”

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