Best of Uptown Saint John

The night was wonderful; everyone was gracious. Winners of the Live Life Awards were announced and as far as we could tell, every body attending had a sensational time. We sure did.

Congratulations to our friends at Thandi’s! They walked away with the award for Best Restaurant of the Year. There were three of us in the category — Thandi’s, Saint John Ale House and Urban Deli.

We’d be disappointed except we were thrilled. Thandi’s is a great representative of the Uptown’s best. As is SJ Ale House.

It was our second year being nominated in that category so we’re hoping third time’s the charm. 🙂

Apart from our congratulations to all the people and businesses that won (and all the nominees), we’d like to let everyone at Uptown Saint John know we truly appreciate all the time, effort and commitment they put into the Live Life Awards and everything they’re doing for the Uptown. Now, here are all the winners!

(Photo via Manchester Shoes Salon)

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Tonight’s the night – Live Life Awards

We’re pretty pumped up about tonight’s Live Life Awards put on by Uptown Saint John. We’re excited partly because the evening proceedings will be held “… in the minimalist ‘white room,’ an architectural gem located on the second floor of 115 Prince William Street.”

And we’re excited because we’re up for an award.

In the ‘Best Restaurant’ category, the nominees are Saint John Ale House, Thandi’s and yours truly, Urban Deli. Best of luck to all three of us!

It’s worth having a look at all the nominees in all the categories. It’s a marvelous cornucopia of the Uptown’s great businesses and some of the exceptional accomplishments over the last year.

If you’re attending the glam event, we hope to see you there. We’ll be on hand and hope to say ‘Hi!’ to everyone.

See you tonight!

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Breakfast, Fundy Food Festival and Symphony NB

We’ve got our breakfast menu going in the Deli this morning till noon-ish when our main menu kicks in. Later today you’ll find us at the Fundy Food Festival.

That starts at 5:30pm and we’ll be on hand featuring items from our catering menu. We hope to see you there — it promises to be a foodie’s dream!

By the way, hat’s off to Symphony New Brunswick for this great video, “A Night at Symphony New Brunswick.” Of course, we like the shots of Urban Deli but if you watch you’ll see in the latter half the fabulous Imperial Theatre. (Have a look at their picture gallery.)

It’s just an all around great video of a wonderful night. We love it!

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Now that is living life Uptown!

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Up for Best Restaurant 2nd year running – Live Life Awards

The Uptown is buzzing today with the Live Life Awards nominations. We were thrilled to find ourselves nominated in the Best Restaurant of the Year category — but the competition is stiff! We’re in there with two of the Uptown’s best: Thandi’s and Saint John Ale House. (Congrats to both!)

Having enjoyed time at both, we can attest to the fact that both are very deserving — we love the food at both! Uptown is the place to be for Saint John’s best dining. Of course, we’re a bit biased on that subject. 🙂

Last year, we found ourselves in three categories, including Best Restaurant. Thandi’s was also nominated last year. As it turns out, in 2010 Opera Bistro took the top honours for Best Restaurant.

You can go over all the categories and all the nominees on the Uptown Saint John site. Or you can let Tracy tell you all about them:

Winners will be announced at the gala event on June 9th. Tickets are available at the Uptown Saint John offices at 40 King Street or by calling 633-9797.

Congratulations to all the nominees in all the categories. Let’s all celebrate by getting out and living life in Uptown Saint John!

 

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Imperial

If you’ve ever seen the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives), you’re probably aware that it was based on the play by Tennessee Williams (who apparently didn’t care for what the filmmakers did to his play).

Now you have a chance to see the play itself. The Saint John Theatre Company is putting it on at the Imperial Theatre, May 19th to 21st. Directed by Stephen Tobias, the play talks about mendacity (untruthfulness). A favourite quote is from the character Big Daddy, who says, “There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity…You can smell it. It smells like death.”

In describing the play, the SJ Theatre Company says,

On a Southern plantation a family celebrates the birthday of their patriarch.  A number of evils poison the gaiety: greed, sins of the past and desperate, clawing hopes for the future …

We bring all this up because Urban Deli is a sponsor of the play and had some tickets to give away for the opening night, Thursday the 19th. And they’ve now been drawn. The winner is Charles E. Frees-Melvin.  Congratulations Charles!

We hope every one can get out and catch the play. It’s one of Tennessee Williams best known plays and there are few better than Tennessee for arresting, lyrical language and drama.

One last thing … The cat reference? That would be the character known as Maggie, the cat (played by Liz Taylor in the film version; played by Emily Bartlett in the current stage production).

You can get more information on the play and order tickets at the Imperial Theatre. And if you want to read an article on the production, see ‘Intense family drama’ from CanadaEast.

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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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