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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Charcuterie and going to school

We went to school last week. Actually, “we” didn’t. Our cook Mike Buchanan and the Urban Deli soon-to-be in-house smoker expert Gord Hewitt went to school. They took a week long Charcuterie, Smokehouse, and Condiment Workshop at the Hyde Park Campus (New York) of The Culinary Institute of America.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term you’ll find a good deal of information on Wikipedia. Basically it means (from Wikipedia):

(Charcuterie) … is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef’s repertoire. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes.

What Mike and Gord experienced in the workshop was a set up similar to Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Hells Kitchen‘ where they broke off into six teams of three each day to prepare dishes and compare finished products and to also work towards the big buffet of all the samplings on their final day, which was Friday.

And with that behind them, Gord and Mike spent the weekend in Manhattan visiting delis and restaurants that specialize in smoked foods. Those foods are very popular in New York because of the simple, economical and tasty ways of preparing foods.

Now we expect Gord and Mike will give us the best of the best for new menu ideas. And we’ll be having fun tasting what they’ve learned and testing out those new ideas. 🙂

On the subject of smokers, but of another kind, we’re expecting Terry Whalen will bring his version of smokin’ to the Deli on Saturday with his roots, rock and blues.

Related posts:

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So much food, so little time

We’re geared up for next week’s Chop Chop “Feast”-ival. What’s that? Have a look at Dig in at the Chop Chop Feastival! As the article says, “The concept was to celebrate local businesses, local food, and show how far the city (Saint John) has come.”

It starts Sunday (November 1) and runs through Saturday (November 7) and it’s a fine opportunity to get a taste of Uptown Saint John. Of course, we’re not open on Sundays so the Urban Deli will be getting underway on Monday (November 2). And what does all this mean?

It means all of the participating restaurants (including the Urban Deli) will feature something as we show the world what Uptown Saint John has to offer by way of food. Here’s what we at the Deli have planned:

Urban Deli 2 course lunch or dinner for $12:
– Soup or Salad and a Montreal Smoked Meat Pizza (Vegetarian Pizza also available)

Our Chop Chop Plate for $10:
– The Trio:  Hummus, Roasted Garlic & Artichoke Dip & Chicken Liver Pate served with Seasoned Pita Chips

If you’re a foodie, you may want to keep your calendar open next week so you can try all the features at our Uptown restaurants. And even if you aren’t a foodie, it’s a good bet you’ll discover something or someplace new.

How many places can you visit in a week?

Urban Deli - Chop Chop Feastival

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Week long Chop Chop festival coming

Uptown Saint John Chop Chop festival, Nov. 1 to 7, 2009.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!

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Canada, chefs and a few questions

We saw this article in the Telegraph-Journal: Canadian chefs’ aprons are in a twist. According to the story, “The country’s top kitchen gurus have had their aprons in a twist since learning last week that an upcoming book profiling the world’s 100 most-promising culinary talents fails to include a single Canuck.”

Disappointing, to say the least. So our question is:

Do you think Canadian chefs should be in there?

Better still, especially for the foodie-travellers out there, what are some of the best restaurants across the country, in your opinion?

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Thank you for yesterday, today and tomorrow

If our posts read a bit schmoozy these days it’s because we have oodles of people to thank and we’re a bit giddy with all that has been happening.

Yesterday we opened and now that we’re in business it’s time to get down to the real business of serving up food and being a rock solid restaurant people want to come back to. You could probably call the next little while our “beta” phase as we tweak this and that and make changes based on the feedback we get.

As we’ve probably mentioned, there are far too many people to thank to list. We’ve had so much help and so many good wishes it’s more than a little humbling. Liz would like to mention Hillary (the Urban Deli’s manager), Alan and Eli (the guys cooking up the food – that’s Eli in the picture) and everyone in the kitchen and on the floor helping her provide the best service possible (one of her obsessions).

You’ll notice that while it took a while to get our menu posted, it’s now up and in a number of formats. There’s the Menu page. Then there’s the “prettified” .pdf format (in the right hand column), part one and part two. And then there is one other .pdf format version, that is strictly a text version for a printer friendly version.

If you’re scratching your head about desserts (like My Saint John was), that is a work-in-progress (the downside of a beta phase). But they are coming – we hope to have those available in about a week.

If you have some time, please pay us a visit today. Drop by for a bite!

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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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