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Posted on March 5, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

Weekend update: what to do Uptown

We’re almost through that long haul of winter without a holiday (New Year’s until Easter weekend), and you probably have some cabin fever kicking in. So, if that is correct and you’re looking to get out this weekend, let this be a guide to get you started.

The Boardwalk is always bound to have something going on and here is a sampling of what to expect:

SJAH (Saint John Ale House) is having their weekly Friday Night Social Club that’ll feature a cocktail competition. This week’s cocktail is Long Island Iced Tea. Come down before 10 PM and you may be lucky enough to be a guest judge. Last week’s cocktail showdown featured Singapore Slings, and co-owner Pete Stoddard won 4 votes over 2 against Shawn Horgan. (See Pete and Shawn in the accompanying picture.) @SJAH_NB

Lemongrass / Peppers Pub have their Friday After Work Special, from 3-7 PM. $5 Guinness & $4.75 Picaroons draught.

Grannans has its weekly Jazz Night featuring Kindred Brothers from 6-8 PM.

Boilerworks will have 90s drink throwback prices.

Elsewhere Uptown, don’t miss out on:

Saint John’s only brewpub, Big Tide Brewing Company, on Princess St, has an ever-changing selection of their own beer, brewed by Wendy Papadopoulos. This weekend they have Whistlepig Stout, Irish Red Ale, Hemp Pale Ale, and for the first time, Honey Brown Ale, all on tap.

Happinez Wine Bar, across the street from Big Tide, will have a wide selection, as always, of wine by the glass or bottle. Beer, by the bottle, is also available along with some spirits. Be sure to sign up early for some upcoming events. Check the website for full details.

Be sure to also hit up Thandi on Canterbury St. for Asian fusion, Saigon Noodle on Union for some Pho, Sense of Tokyo for deliciously fresh Sushi, and of course there is Opera Bistro and the Urban Deli . Be sure to plug your favourite place in the comments if I’ve missed something you think other readers will be interested in. Cheers!

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Bio: Dan Jones is a food, drink, and travel writer from Saint John. Follow him on Twitter: @danjjj

Posted on March 1, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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Cooking class at the Urban Deli

We’re going to try something a little different. We have a cooking class coming up on March 14th with ‘Chef Bob.’ That would be Saint John’s Bob McVicar and the date is for a Sunday, when we’re normally closed. And the subject of the class? Italian cabbage rolls.

This will be a ‘reserved seating only’ class with just sixteen (16) tickets available – enough to fill our communal table and to break into four groups of four. There is a cost — $12 – to help offset some of our costs. But we’ve tried to keep it as minimal as possible.

Participants will receive:

A delicious sample tasting of Bob’s cabbage rolls that you will be making prior to making your own
Tasting of Urban Deli’s Italian sausage (made in-house at the Deli)
Copy of Bob’s Italian Cabbage Roll recipe
Hands-on experience in making your own cabbage rolls
Portions of cabbage rolls to take home for your next dinner party or keep for yourself

We’re pretty sure it will be a lot of fun. If you get thirsty, beverages will be available for purchase: beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks.

If you’re interested in what promises to be a tasty and entertaining afternoon, just give Liz a call at the Urban Deli: 652.3354.

The details once more time:

Cooking class at the Urban Deli – Italian cabbage rolls with Bob McVicar
Sunday, March 14, 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Cost: $12

We hope you can join us!

Posted on February 27, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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Uptown Saint John, opportunities and the future

If you were listening to CBC Radio One (91.3 FM) yesterday – Information Morning Saint John – you might have caught Liz, owner of the Urban Deli. She was in to talk about the Uptown, restaurants and what the future might hold. The CBC site puts it this way: “Owner and operator of the Urban Deli, Elizabeth Rowe, tells us about the development opportunites in the uptown.”

If you missed it, you catch the podcast here: The Future Of Development In Uptown Saint John.

Posted on February 25, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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Beers Beers Beers

What is your favourite beer? I’m sure that you immediately thought of an answer but probably then got to several other candidates. I can’t really pinpoint an exact answer for this question myself but I have a few beers I’d like to write about and then, after reading, you can comment about some of your favourites to share with me and other readers.

I really love British-style ales and the best place to get them around the Maritimes, even cask-conditioned (unpasteurized so it is still alive in the keg), is from Granite in Halifax (check out Henry House on Barrington St). I love their Best Bitter, Ringwood, and Peculiar. British ales will normally be blonde to brown in colour due to the medium to rich dark malts, with a great hop appeal in the nose, and a moderate to heavy bitterness that invites another drink. Alcohol content normally ranges from as low as 3% on session brews up to 8% and sometimes higher in old ales and Winter warmers.

Locally, Picaroons has a couple of products that come to mind – Blonde Ale and Best Bitter although they have several ales available in bottles and on tap. I’ll often order the Blonde Ale at Urban Deli by the bottle, as it’s quite palatable for most food due to it being so middle of the road with toasted honey nut oat malt and hops and a creamy mouth feel.

The Best Bitter is much deeper in dark malts and noticeably bitter. You can pick up both by the 500 ml bottle at ANBL and at SJAH you can grab the Blonde Ale by bottle and Best Bitter on tap. Shadow Lawn Inn, Barnwood, and Pomodori in Rothesay, Happinez and Callahan’s in Uptown SJ, and Vintage Bistro & Lounge in Hampton all sell Picaroons products.

Fullers London Pride, available on ANBL shelves in a 500 ml bottle, is also a great example of British ale and it could be my favourite import because it is the closest to what I love about real ale that is available in a bottle – and is a truly balanced ale with a tad of thirst inducing astringency. Pumphouse, from Moncton, also specializes in ales but are often in the North American styles – all very excellent though and is sold at UD and other fine establishments.

Nothing beats a crisp cold lager on a hot summer’s day. Lagers are brewed differently than ales as they are brewed at colder temperatures for longer periods of time. This creates higher costs for a brewer, especially craft breweries, who have limited equipment that is tied up longer, among other things, if making a lager. Due to these reasons, you don’t see many craft brewed lagers.

However, things may be changing in this regard and soon to be brand new to ANBL shelves is Feels Good Imperial Pilsner made by Picaroons. It has been on tap in Fredericton for some time and now it is ready to be shared and enjoyed with the rest of New Brunswick. feelsgood.ca is an arts, music, and community movement and Picaroons has been kind enough to brand the beer after this organization.

At 7% alcohol this beer can be dangerous as the alcohol is well-masked due to how smooth this beer drinks starts and then the hoppy aftertaste keeps you going back for more. I know this pilsner, a type of lager, will be a regular in my fridge.

Big Tide Brewery, on Princess Street, has had a pilsner on tap and most likely will again. It was quite delicious the few times I had it. It was very clean, with fruity malts, and decently hopped but not overly so. Moosehead Breweries’ Alpine Lager is a clean drinking beer whether by the bottle or draught. Alpine has actual flavour, especially compared to the other mass-market North American lagers it competes with but could use more hops.

Urban Deli will be picking up the Feels Good Imperial Pilsner as soon as it hits the shelves and Alpine is always available at UD along with several other beers by the bottle, always from New Brunswick only.

Follow the businesses listed on twitter: @urbandeli, @SJAH_NB, @picaroons, @loveoffood (Pomodori), and @FeelsGoodMusic.

(Note: The Feels Good Imperial Lager should be on Saint John shelves very shortly. The www.nbliquor.com site shows it is already in several stores. The price will be $3.75 for 500 ml bottle, which is the same price as their other products yet it is 7% alcohol.)

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Bio: Dan Jones is a food, drink, and travel writer from Saint John. Follow him on twitter: @danjjj

Posted on February 17, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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We’ve had a few winners

On our counter we have a bowl for business cards. If you’ve put your card in there, or if you do the next time you visit the Urban Deli, you’ll be in the running to win a little something from us. But first things first, we have a couple of winners already.

The first winner of a free lunch at the Deli is Reid Southwick. Reid is a reporter from the Telegraph-Journal. His was the first card we drew from the jar.

We also had another winner. We drew Mike Hachey’s card. Mike’s from Califorina Custom Auto. Congratulations to both Reid and Mike and thank you for taking the time to visit and have a bite at the Urban Deli.

We’ve decided to do this with a bit more regularity so our next draws will be in the first week of March and the first week of every month thereafter. Also, with that next draw (early March) we’ll actually do two draws. One for a book, another for a free lunch.

The first book up for grabs is Tatya: Moscow Nights, Book I of Miron Rezun’s Tatya Trilogy. The other draw will be for a free lunch at the Urban Deli. If we draw yours, you’ll be joining Rick and Mike in the winner’s circle!

Posted on February 11, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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An update on our Haiti relief effort

Through customer and staff support, the Urban Deli donated all the sales for our $2 and $3 Frites from three Saturdays in January (16th, 23rd, and 30th). We also had a donation jar on our counter so if anyone chose to do so, they could contribute as well.

We’ve managed to raise a little over $400 and are planning to get it over to the Canadian Red Cross today. We’re also going to see if there is a way to get the federal government to match it (which would make it an over $800 contribution). If what we understand is correct, the “matching dollars” program ends tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed that we’ll be able to get it matched by Ottawa.

The picture below is of two of our staff, Lianne and Ashely. Lianne is holding the fish bowl that was on the front counter where customers could donate and Ashley is holding some of our fries!

We’ve been very quiet recently on the site and elsewhere (like Twitter). We’re hoping to change this very soon! One of the reasons for being less than active online is that we’re exploring a few changes. Basically, we’d like to put things up that aren’t necessarily Urban Deli related but related to food generally, Saint John and especially the Uptown.

We think if all we talk about is the Deli we would get very tiresome very soon — kind of like the guy at the party who only talks about himself. Of course, we still want to talk about the Deli, just not exclusively.

In the meantime, thank you to everyone for the donations to our Haiti relief effort and please keep in mind the country’s problems aren’t going away anytime soon. You can donate anytime through organizations like Red Cross, World Vision and many others.

Posted on January 14, 2010 Posted by Urban Deli

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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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