It should be a tasty week – Chop Chop!

The Chop Chop “Feast”-ival is underway in Saint John’s uptown and it promises to be a tasty week. Last week we mentioned what the Urban Deli would be featuring. If an eyebrow or two was raised when we mentioned our Montreal Smoked Meat Pizza (vegetarian also available), let’s provide a bit of information …

This is may not be be “pizza” in quite the way you may imagine. It’s a bit like an open-face sandwich and it is served on toasted pita. We did a number of tastings to get it just the way we wanted, so you may want to give it a try. Keep in mind, as well, we do offer a vegetarian version for those inclined that way.

Music

We had a great Halloween with Wes Jagoe providing the music. Now we’re looking forward to this Saturday, the 7th, when Terry Whelan will be here, 8 to 10 pm, doing his musicial thing. It looks like it will be another great night!

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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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Menu update: gluten-free and getting educated

We’ve had all sorts of kind words and great conversations with customers and others since we’ve opened. And since we’ve opened, one phrase keeps popping up: gluten-free.”

Canadian Celiac Association logoThey say you can’t be all things to all people and, while that may be true, you can certainly try. So we’ve started the Urban Deli on a journey to educate ourselves and implement gluten-free menu items for persons with celiac disease and for those who simply want gluten-free menu options.

We will offer gluten-free menu items very soon. We’re aiming at September 21 for an updated menu. The gluten-free items will include (but won’t be limited to):

  • Seafood Chowder
  • Ribs
  • Salads & Dressings
  • Mac’n Cheese (both the noodles and cheese sauce)
  • Noodles with a light tomato sauce and meatballs
  • Gluten-free bread – making many of our sandwich choices gluten-free

We’ve spoken to a number of persons with celiac disease and other people who simply want gluten-free options. With the subject coming up so frequently, we quickly saw that it was an important aspect of a menu and that we needed to incorporate gluten-free choices.

We’re not exactly the best informed people on this subject but our research (and education) has begun. We’ll be contacting the local chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association here in Saint John so we can meet with them and they can take us into their world – allow us to learn what life is like for people with celiac disease.  And we’re look forward to it!

Thanks to everyone who has spoken to us and helped point us in the right direction. Changes like these only come about through your input, so please remember any menu suggestions or favourite recipes are welcome through our web site or by dropping into the Deli and saying, “Hi!”

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Yes, we’ll be open for New Brunswick Day (Monday)

Just in case anyone might have wondered (because Monday is a holiday), we will be open with our regular 11:00am to 8:00pm hours. So if you’re in Uptown Saint John on Monday, drop in an see us. (Sorry, we’ll be closed on Sunday – but we do hope to be opening on Sundays soon. Really!)

With New Brunswick being the birthday kid on Monday (225 years old!), there are quite a few things going on, many of them in the Market Square area, just down the street from us. You’ll find some information at Tourism Saint John (August events). (En français? Allez ici.) It sounds as if there will be lots of live entertainment.

Also open and celebrating on Monday, and also in Market Square, the New Brunswick Museum. (Si vous préférez la page en français, s’il vous plaît cliquer ici.)

No, our French is not very good. We just thought if someone’s first language was French and they preferred seeing the information that way, it’s easy enough to link to it.

Have a great New Brunswick Day! 225 years ain’t no small thing, you know. That is some kind of history!

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Uptown or Downtown?

We saw a story on CBC New Brunswick today, Saint John urged to rename city centre ‘downtown.’ We’re curious to hear what you think. From the CBC story:

A former Saint John mayor (Eric Teed) is pushing to have the long-held expression for the city’s centre switched from the confusing “uptown” moniker to the more traditional term of “downtown.”

When asked, Liz, the owner of the Urban Deli, said, “That’s crazy!” We’ve had a few tweets from others that seem to agree.

Liz is actually very proud of being part of Uptown Saint John. Of course, she’s always been a fan of the urban core, everywhere, feeling that’s where the heart of a city should be. It’s where all the vitality of its business, culture, arts and, yes, people who live there, should be and interact.

She has some pretty strong opinions on this, particularly in the context of Saint John. When we asked her about this uptown-downtown thing she started in on how there are more important things to worry about, like the usual issues that affect any city’s urban core — housing, drugs, business support and so on.

But what do you think? Uptown? Downtown? Does it matter to you? We’d like to hear what you think.

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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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