A little something for Haiti

We can’t begin to understand what the people in Haiti are experiencing or how Haitian Canadians are feeling given the scope of the disaster. How do you wrap your mind around it? But we do understand the need for help. So though it may be small in comparison to the need, we’d like to so something.

As of tomorrow, when you’re at the Urban Deli and paying for what you’ve ordered, we’ll be set up so that if you want to, you can give whatever change you get back to Haiti. We’ll have a jar by the cash register. Or if you just want to drop something in there, please do.

And for the next few Saturdays when you’re in the Deli, if you order fries (what we like to call Potato Frites), the money will be going to Haiti.

Any money raised will be going to the Canadian Red Cross for Haiti relief and rebuilding.

There are many other ways to help Haiti as well. The CBC has a pretty comprehensive list on their web site (just scroll down the page a bit).

One of the largest is, of course, the Canadian Red Cross. From the CBC site: “The Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations to support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti. Donations can be earmarked to the Haiti earthquake fund. Canadians who wish to give may donate online by clicking here. Donations can also be made by calling 1-800-418-1111 or by visiting any Red Cross office.”

By the way, watch out for scams. Sad though it is, there are people out there who would take advantage of this tragedy, particularly online. Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs has a page How Canadians Can Help that has a lot of good information on what to donate, experienced humanitarian organizations, as well as other information on “major disasters and other emergencies abroad.”

People here in Saint John have very real connections with Haiti. Our thoughts are with them.

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Upcoming townhall with FUSION Saint John

Yes, we’ve been a little slow out of the gate as far as the new year and our online activity goes but we haven’t been slow as far as the actual Urban Deli goes. We’ve been active!

One thing we wanted to make you aware of, if you aren’t already, is what is going on January 13th (next Wednesday). FUSION Saint John will be presenting a townhall as, “Leader of the Official Opposition David Alward talks to FUSION Saint John.” It’s an informational meeting running from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.

For more information or to RSVP, visit FUSION on their Facebook page.

We imagine it will be an interesting evening and we’re thrilled FUSION chose the Urban Deli to put this on. By the way, to keep up on all their upcoming events, you’ll find it all here on the FUSION Saint John site.

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A night in December at the Deli

It’s the season for get-togethers and last night we hosted Avant-Garde Construction and Management Inc. for their Christmas party. If you look at the photo below you’ll see they were seated at our long communal table.

What kind of food might be involved at a Christmas party at the Urban Deli? For Avant-Garde it began with appetizers. We served up roasted garlic and artichoke dip, bacon  wrapped scallops and char crusted pork tenderloin. There was also a choice of seafood chowder, spinach salad, caesar salad, or house salad.

For the main course guests had a choice of smoked whole lobster (smoked in house, at the Deli), rack of ribs, smoked herb crusted 1/2 chicken accompanied by rice garlic mashed potatoes or fries (our potato frites).

And for dessert it was a choice of molten chocolate cake, our now famous sour cream lemon pie or a candy cane cheese cake.

We also had some evening musical entertainment provided by Jessica Darrah.

And that was our Saturday night at the Urban Deli. A big thank you to everyone, including our wonderful staff, and a Merry Christmas to Avant-Garde!

Avant Garde at the Urban Deli.

The Avant Garde Christmas party at the Urban Deli. That's our Liane on the left and way off in the background you can see Jessica Darrah performing. Photo via Gord's phone.

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The Urban Deli has another first

Since we’re still pretty new, we come upon a lot of firsts. Yesterday (Friday) we had yet another one. A couple of our customers, Cyril and Trena, got engaged at the Urban Deli!

It came about this way: the romantic couple have very busy schedules. In fact, they’re so busy it forced Cyril to propose to Trena over a smoked meat sandwich while lunching at the Deli. We’re honored they chose our place for their happy moment. And congratulations  to the lucky couple!

Cyril and Trena

Music tonight

By the way, tonight is yet another of our musical Saturday nights. It gets underway at 7:30 with Jessica Darrah. We’ll also have our guy Wes Jagoe and friends. They’ll be dropping in to see what musical confections might be in the air to be had, so there will be a little bit of everything tonight. If you’re in the Uptown area, pay us a visit. We think you’ll like some of the musical notes we’ll be hitting!

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A busy and fun weekend for us

We’ve had a pretty full weekend at the Urban Deli as far as keeping busy goes. On Friday, we provided 24 Operation Red Nose volunteers a hearty home made chicken soup with tea biscuits, two dips (our roasted garlic and artichoke and Hummus dips served with seasoned pita chips) and topped off with a mixed dessert tray of Deli goodies.

We spoke with Katie, the coordinator, and she tells us the volunteers made up seven teams of drivers and they chauffeured thirty-four trips, raising over $500 in donations — the largest amount raised in a single night thus far. (We’re not yet sure how last night went.) Last weekend they raised the same amount over two days.

So congratulations to everyone at Operation Red Nose and a big thank you to all the volunteers!

Music last night

Last night was another of our music nights and we welcomed Karen Palmer, an old soul and story teller with an affinity for Saint John history that comes through in her music, particularly in her own creative works such as “The West Side Song.”

Karen has a crystal clear sound, a bit reminiscent  of Jewel. She brought us her own creativity, style and accomplished guitar playing to make it a warm and inviting evening. So many thanks to Karen.

And thanks as well to our Twitter followers for their tweets and retweets!

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Urban Deli and Operation Red Nose

We’re up tonight! We’ll be providing sustenance tonight to 22 Operation Red Nose volunteers as our part in what is a great program to keep us all safe on the roads.

Originally we thought it would be next week but it’s tonight, December 4th. We also want to extend a big thank you to everyone, particularly the volunteers.

Sorry for the brevity! It’s a busy day!

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Music, snacks and Operation Red Nose

According to Liz, Saturday was a great night with Marvin Rathburn performing at the Deli. If you missed it, we also have music up for this Saturday with Saint John’s Karen Palmer dropping in to perform. If you can, pay a visit and give a listen.

On another note, if you haven’t heard about or are unfamiliar with Operation Red Nose we think it’s a great and welcome idea and think you may want to check it out. “Essentially, it is a volunteer safe ride home service provided during the Holiday Season to all motorists who have been drinking or who do not feel fit to drive their own vehicle.”

We’ll be helping out by providing snacks for volunteers working Friday, December 11th December 4th. Others kicking in to help volunteers do their thing are Burger King, Subway and McDonalds.  And every Saturday volunteers can look forward to Copper Penny pizza.

If you’re thinking of being a volunteer, visit the FUSION page and scroll to the info near the bottom.

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