Urban Deli Tag foodies

Posted on January 5, 2012 Posted by Urban Deli

Sisters with a passion for food

Host of Off the Beaten Palate, Michael-Ann Rowe

If you’ve been in Urban Deli you may have noticed our owner Liz is often a whirlwind of activity. However, she is almost zen-like when compared with her sister, Michael-Ann (aka Mikey, aka MA), who lives in New York City when she’s not traveling the globe or coming back to New Brunswick.

Each sister has her own distinct characteristics but they also have many in common. Not the least of these is a passion for food. Where Liz opened her own restaurant, Urban Deli, Michael-Ann created her own television show, Off the Beaten Palate.

You’ve probably seen Mikey in the Deli as she brings her energy back home to New Brunswick every chance she gets. In fact, the first show of Off the Beaten Palate showcases our great province.

Now Michael-Ann’s show is nominated in the 2012 Taste Awards (aka the Tasty Awards). If you’re unfamiliar with them, here is how they describe themselves.

Off the Beaten Palate

The Annual TASTE AWARDS (aka the TASTY Awards) is the premier broadcast awards show to celebrate the best in food, fashion, and home lifestyle programs on TV, in Film, Online, and on Radio. The goal is to recognize and acknowledge outstanding excellence in video and film content focused on food, drink, fashion, design, and home lifestyle.

The awards are a pretty big deal in the world of food. Other people up for awards in various categories are the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver with shows like Kitchen Nightmares and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

MA’s show finds itself in the Best Food Travel Series: Web (there are five shows nominated in the category).

Mikey will go just about anywhere to explore culinary delicacies from their roots.

What is Off the Beaten Palate?

Host and narrator, Michael-Ann Rowe, is a food lover, restaurateur, and TV personality, who takes an unabashed and inquisitive approach, as she travels the globe disclosing culinary delicacies from their roots.

We’re all pretty excited about Mikey’s nomination given that the show has not yet launched. But keep with us at Urban Deli for news of a PBS airing date in March, 2012! Canadians everywhere will have a chance to see it.

She’ll be heading to Hollywood soon for the January 12 Tasty Awards show (and we’re pretty envious because it sounds like it will be a snazzy red carpet affair).

We’re wishing her all the best as her culinary adventure takes her to Tinsel Town to hobnob with celebrity foodies and others as they celebrate the best in food television.

If you’re curious about Off the Beaten Palate have a look at the the trailer. You can also read about the Tasty Awards and Michael-Ann in this Huffington Post article.

Off the Beaten Palate:

Michael-Ann Rowe, host of Off the Beaten Palate, takes a break while shooting an episode back home in New Brunswick.

Posted on May 5, 2011 Posted by Urban Deli

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Urban Deli named one of the places to eat in Canada

If there is a bible for Canadian foodies, it’s Where to Eat in Canada. It lists, and reviews, the best restaurants across the country so that when you’re travelling, you know where to go for great eating.

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!

Posted on November 25, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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A word about our BBQ sauce

A couple of weeks ago we came upon a great site for foodies called Plato Putas. We stumbled upon it via Twitter because they had a post titled Trip Report: Saint John, N.B., Restaurants. And guess what restaurant they loved? Yes, the Urban Deli.

And yes, we may be slightly biased in our love of their site. 🙂

One of the things they loved at the Deli was our BBQ sauce so we decided to do something we don’t normally do and mail them a bottle. But that also got us thinking … A lot of people have commented on our sauce, so we thought we’d give you a brief word or two about it.

As with any great tasting sauce or dish, the secret to its success is in the blending and proportions of the herbs and other ingredients — all the elements of flavours that make up the condiment or dish.

Now, we can’t give you a detailed recipe — it wouldn’t be much of a kitchen secret then — but we can tell you that it’s a combination of onion, garlic, chili’s’, sugars, vinegars, and one or two special flavours that are brought together to make our Urban Deli Gluten Free BBQ sauce.

Unfortunately, beyond that we can’t really tell you much without giving the secret away. But if you haven’t tried it yet, please pay us a visit and check it out! We’d love to see you!

Posted on October 27, 2010 Posted by Fran

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Chop Chop “Feast”ival for Foodies

Join us for a variety of Deli-styled Italian dishes which will be available for customers from November 1st to November 6th. Please call us at 506.652.3354 to make reservations for this event.

During our lunch hour, we will be presenting an Italian pasta special ($12 plus tax) with the option of bruschetta or soup as an appetizer. Customers have the choice of a traditional Italian bolognese sauce or a creamy parmesan sauce which consists of pesto, sautéed mushrooms, roasted red peppers and spinach.

For the evening Chop Chop foodies, reservations can be made for a three course dinner for two ($30 plus tax). The three course dinner consists of bruschetta or soup to start and is followed by the pasta special. This will be finished off with a home-made dulce de leche meringa con gelato e cioccolato (ice-cream meringue topped with dulce de leche and chocolate sauce) dessert for sharing.

We look forward to seeing you during this eventful week!

Chef Andrew Brewer

Click HERE for the Chop Chop Chef Profile on Andrew Brewer

Posted on March 31, 2010 Posted by The Deli

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Bourbon Quarter – worth the reservations

*For reservations call 506-214-3618

Opening and trial nights are never easy for new restaurant owners and their staff. There is always something that is unfinished to the perfectionist owner who wants nothing more than to be a crowd pleaser for his or her future clientele. The old saying about having one opportunity to make a good first impression is true and it can be overwhelming.

On Friday, March 26, I and 14 others in our party were lucky invitees to the friends and family night at Bourbon Quarter. The menu presented for the evening was $20 with the following choices:

Appetizer:

Grilled Watermelon with goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, spring greens and buttermilk vinaigrette
or
Louisiana Fried Clams

Entrée:

Crisp Skin Salmon with roasted fingerling potatoes, julienne vegetables, fried onions and beet butter
or
Supreme Chicken Breast with truffle whipped potatoes and glazed vegetables

For dessert (for an additional $5) there was Crème Brulée, Madagascar vanilla bean (meaning “burnt cream”).

The review:

I’ve taken a hybrid of my own personal experience during my evening as well as those of other people in our party.

Like most foodies, I had to try everything regardless of any extra cost.

Grilled Watermelon: When the grilled watermelon appetizer arrived the presentation was beautiful. The flavours were something I have not tasted since visiting the Rossmount in St. Andrews just before Christmas. Those of us who tried it (including myself ) were using our pinky finger and spoons or forks to capture the remaining buttermilk vinaigrette on the plate. Need I say more?

Louisiana Fried Clams: This was a great idea but the consensus at the table was that this appetizer needs work. There is always one dish for a new restaurant that will be their nemesis. Owners love feedback and I shared mine with Chef Brad. (Our nemesis at the Urban Deli, and as simple as it sounds, was our homemade baked beans.)

Crisp Skin Salmon: OMG! I don’t think they could have cooked the salmon any better; the flavor was delicious and the plate presentation was perfect. It was a nice follow-up to the Watermelon appetizer.

Supreme Chicken Breast: The chicken was cooked to perfection (mine was) and there were a couple of dishes that were on the cooler side but tasty to the hungry visitor.

Dessert: Crème Brulee was the intent and as it turned out…someone forgot the dessert torch for the brulee; therefore, it was more of a custard (a very good custard too!). When we finished, everyone’s dish was empty.

Plate presentation at Bourbon Quarter is beautifully simple. I haven’t seen their static menu or their pricing. For this friends and family night our cost for two for the evening was $116 not including the gratuity. Our service was excellent….Ashley, who also works at the Urban Deli, did a phenomenal job given the size of our party!

Wine was only available by the glass. Beer, tap beer, martinis, cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks were also being served by bartender extraordinaire Gordon, former manager of Sebastian. Mike Verner is hiring a sommelier from Ontario. We should see a real focus on wine and food pairings in the future.

The Bourbon Quarter room with its renovations was trendy, upscale and comfortable. The renovations would have had more of an impact if you had visited the location prior to it being Bourbon Quarter. Vision goes a long way. I could feel a bit of the same flare from the designers of Thandi’s, who also did Bourbon Quarter. The end result? It works for both restaurants.

Thank you to Mike Verner, Sean Verner and their families, Chef Brad Richard, and all the staff. Great work!

Visit Bourbon Quarter at 112 Prince William Street, Uptown Saint John.

***

Bio: Liz is the owner of the Urban Deli. With a sister in Manhattan, she has visited New York many times and invariably studies the Big Apple’s famous delis.

Posted on October 17, 2009 Posted by Urban Deli

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Week long Chop Chop festival coming

In case you missed it, the Telegraph-Journal had a story this week about an upcoming food festival we’ll be taking part in: Chop, chop food fans, fun festival is coming. To quote from the article:

“The idea behind the week is to put us on the food map,” said Margret Begner, co-owner of Opera Bistro and a member of the festival organizing committee.

“It should showcase how proud we can be of the different restaurants and businesses that we do have in this area.”

During the Chop-Chop festival, foodies will have the chance to sample from 22 participating restaurants in the uptown with a set pricing menu.

So from November 1 through 7, Uptown Saint John is where you’re going to want to be to give your taste buds the time of their life. We’re very excited to be part of this! Let’s help make Saint John’s uptown one of Canada’s great food destinations!