Tag: Saint John

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Gluten-free pasta and more at Urban Deli

We’ve made a few updates to our gluten-free offerings, including the list of gluten-free products you can purchase here at Urban Deli.

Heather Turnbull from The Gluten-free Menu has made some wonderful changes and we’re excited to be able to offer them.

She now has a soft multi grain bread and a soft white bread, both gluten-free and dairy free. We’re able to retail both of these, as a look at our gluten-free list shows. We’ll also continue to use her gluten-free molasses brown for our sandwiches.

And there’s more!

We’ve now added gluten-free pasta to our product list – angel hair, lasagna and penne – all of them available for purchase here at the Deli. This is thanks to Hodgson Mill. They’re providing us the pastas – all natural brown rice pastas with golden milled flax seed.

You can have a look at all the gluten-free products we offer for purchase on our gluten-free page. (You can also download the.pdf file.)

Of course, we also us these products in the restaurant, so if you’re looking for a gluten-free friendly place to eat, Urban Deli can fit the bill!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend and if you get a chance, drop in and say!

One last thing …

We’re open Moms’ Day — that would be Sunday, May 8. In fact, as of Sunday our new hours kick in, including being open Sundays from 10:00am to 3:00pm with our breakfast menu.

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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!

 

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Testing the waters – Summer hours and other changes

We’re excited as we put our toes in to test the waters with a few changes we’re introducing starting Sunday, May 8th. (That would be Mother’s Day.)

Beginning Mom’s Day, May 8th (Sunday coming up) we will be open for breakfast/brunch every Sunday from 10 am to 3pm – serving breakfast only.

This means we’ll now be open on both days of the weekend for breakfast:

  • Saturdays for breakfast 9 am to noon, followed by our regular menu till 8:00pm
  • Sunday breakfast/brunch from 10 am to 3pm

And as of Monday, May 9th, we will be closing the Deli at 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays (but only on Mondays and Tuesdays). This is to allow us to respond to the continued requests to be open on Sundays, especially with the arrival of the warmer months when people are out and about in the Uptown.

We’ll also be using our space on Monday and Tuesday evenings for private functions and possibly cooking classes. So keep us in mind for your private company dinner meetings and send us your cooking class requests.

Once again, beginning this weekend Urban Deli will be welcoming your weekend with our Deli breakfast menu on Saturdays and Sundays. We hope to see you!

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Our hours for an Easter weekend

For some it’s a four day holiday; for others a three day holiday. It’s the Easter weekend coming up and we want to let you know what our hours will be for the rest of the week. In a nutshell:

  • Thursday: open until 8pm
  • Friday:  Closed
  • Saturday: 9a.m. to 4pm
  • Sunday:  Closed
  • Monday: 11am to 4pm (We’ll be serving up lunch early with a breakfast sandwich special.)

Keep in mind our Saturday breakfast and lunch when you’re out and about, particularly if you’ll be in the Uptown. We can get your Saturday off to a tasty start with our breakfast or, if you take a break in your day for lunch, we’re at the ready with our scrumptious choices.

We’d love to see you and say, “Happy Easter!”

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Gluten-free quinoa wraps – our recipe

We hope you made it to the Simply For Life (SFL) seminar last night at the Trade and Convention Centre. If you did, you may have seen us. We were one of the many Saint John vendors taking part. Events like this are always full of information and for us it was a nudge to get on something we have in the works: identifying the SFL approved items on our menu.

On the subject of foods, last year when we were at the Fundy Food Festival we served up quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) wraps and they really went over well with everyone. Quinoa is a gluten-free food and we’re posting our recipe (see below).

 

What’s quinoa?

Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown for its seeds, which are edible. It has a long history as a food source. More significantly, it’s known for a number of valuable properties. Wikipedia tells us quinoa is,

“… Highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.”

Now, here’s our quinoa wraps recipe, via our long time friend Lianne of Exhale Coaching in British Columbia. Thanks Lianne!

Quiona Wraps Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cups quinoa (keen-wa)
  • 2 cups water
  • Lettuce (iceberg, butterhead or romaine)

Method

Combine water and quinoa. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered and cook for 15 minutes.

Marinade

  • 3 tbs ginger, fresh and grated
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tbs cilantro
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs honey
  • 3 tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-2 scallions (optional)

Method

Combine ginger, scallions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and cilantro. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, honey and salt. Combine these together and then add the quinoa.

Note: can be served warm or cooled. Next day, it’s even better. Can be served on its own or with a dollop of peanut butter / peanut sauce on each with the lettuce.

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We gave away tickets to Black Comedy at the Imperial

Director of 'Black Comedy', Scott Thomas (photo: Noel Chenier/Telegraph-Journal)

We’ve just given away a pair of tickets to Thursday’s performance of Black Comedy, written by Peter Shaffer and on the main stage at the Imperial Theatre. The tickets are thanks to the Saint John Theatre Company and it should be an intriguing and funny show.

Scott Thomas will be directing and the Telegraph-Journal tells us it is his directorial debut and he is, “… the founder of Improvisation Corporation, a group of comedic improvisers who perform a variety of shows and formats around the city.”

Our winner is Kim Atkinson of Saint John. She was pretty excited about winning the tickets. Thanks to everyone who filled out ballots at the restaurant! And by the way …

You don’t have to win tickets to see Black Comedy. It runs Thursday through Saturday this week, March 17 to 19, and you can get tickets by calling the Imperial at 674-4100.

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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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