BEST BAR FOOD Congress
There are great pours at this Collingwood wine bar, but the food is the reason we can’t stay away
CONGRESS’S PIG’S HEAD and green mustard sanga almost singlehandedly put Collingwood’s new wine bar on the map even before getting an Insta-shoutout from Nigella. Luckily the hype is deserved: that little croquette of terrine, set between fluffy circles of high GI white bread with a lick of radioactive-green mayo, unleashes a wave of umami-rich juices punctuated with the zip of baby capers. As much adoration as this supersnack has earned, it does a disservice to the rest of the menu to stop there. Keep scrolling for precise, imaginative and flavourfirst cooking. Ox tongue is a must, tender char-fringed slivers tightly bunched onto skewers with chunky chermoula; hasselback sweet potato gets swiped through sunflower tahini then dipped in crunchy furikake for a double-dose of nuttiness; and baby eggplant is stewed in vinegared soy till wobbly soft, then blanketed under a crisp rubble of puffed quinoa, fried parsley and zingy red currants.
On every front, Congress matches the already high standard of wine bar food in Melbourne and raises it. Cheese doesn’t get phoned in
with a scatter of lavosh and muscatel – there’s crumbly oatcakes and rhubarb for Brillat Savarin, chickpea crackers and onion with manchego, or, in the case of your hunk of Mauri Taleggio, a butter-saturated, toasted slice of saffron loaf and tart, stewed peaches. You’d be forgiven for forgetting that Congress is actually a wine bar first and foremost, and a great one at that. A compact list skips around the globe, but you’ll find the keenest refreshment in young local makers, like the Yume Petit Manseng, a hazy skin-contact amber that’s lightly buttery with shades of honeyed lemon, or south Gippy maker Fleet’s Amis rosé, which sits at the ideal nexus of dry, fruity, floral and acidic.
Congress’s early buzz has seamlessly transitioned into sustained success. It shows what you can achieve when you have a clear vision and fresh ideas, plus the experience and discipline to execute them. High summer, deep winter, for a Friday power lunch or a solo dinner, we’re always looking for an excuse to come back. 49 Peel St, Collingwood 3066. congresswine.com.au. Mon-thu 4-11pm; Fri, Sat 11.30am-12.30am.