NewsBite

Advertisement

The regional wine bar with a menu so good, I should have booked an extra night

Surry Hills meets the Sapphire Coast at the handsome Bar Superette, where the longer bistro menu is the drawcard on weekends.

Callan Boys
Callan Boys

Bar Superette’s spotted-gum timber bar sure is handsome.
1 / 9Bar Superette’s spotted-gum timber bar sure is handsome.Nick Parkinson
Calamari and guanciale skewer with salmoriglio.
2 / 9Calamari and guanciale skewer with salmoriglio.Nick Parkinson
Balmain bug salad with beans, kohlrabi and Espelette pepper.
3 / 9Balmain bug salad with beans, kohlrabi and Espelette pepper.Nick Parkinson
Nineties hip-hop records are on high rotation.
4 / 9Nineties hip-hop records are on high rotation.Nick Parkinson
Steak frites with smoked anchovy butter.
5 / 9Steak frites with smoked anchovy butter.Nick Parkinson
Gin martini.
6 / 9Gin martini.Nick Parkinson
Grilled LP’s smoked beef tongue skewers with tonnato.
7 / 9Grilled LP’s smoked beef tongue skewers with tonnato.Nick Parkinson
The bottle shop’s wine shelves are well stocked.
8 / 9The bottle shop’s wine shelves are well stocked.Nick Parkinson
The bar’s bistro menu is a drawcard on weekends.
9 / 9The bar’s bistro menu is a drawcard on weekends.Nick Parkinson

14.5/20

Contemporary$$

Ah, Merimbula. Good to be back. I love your far horizons, I love your jewel sea. I love your oysters and bream-fishing and whale-watching opportunities, and I have a weird thing for the ham-and-pineapple pizza next to the mini-golf course.

But while the tourist town is a top, long-weekend destination, it has long needed more spots beyond the putt-putt joint and Dulcie’s Cottage to eat and drink in.

So when a new place starts trading in natural riesling, triple-digit reds and ’nduja mussels on toast ($10), it stands out when you Google “new bars Sapphire Coast”.

Advertisement

Five years ago, I would have claimed Bar Superette as a seismic discovery, up there with the first Snowy River cattlemen to stumble across payable gold. But Merimbula’s food has been on the up since one-hatted Valentina opened for local lobster and estuary views in 2020, and Sunny’s Kiosk started a cracking brunch service two years later.

Superette opened in the town centre last year, and while it doesn’t boast any waterside cachet, the bar and bottle shop sure are handsome. A narrow room is flanked by wildflowers, vinyl records and lots of spotted-gum timber that I’d like for shelves in my own house.

Calamari and guanciale skewer with salmoriglio.
Calamari and guanciale skewer with salmoriglio.Nick Parkinson

Co-owner Ryde Pennefather stokes hibachi coals, grills fish and chooses those records. Nineties hip-hop from A Tribe Called Quest is on heavy rotation, but you could hear Orville Peck or Diana Ross, too. If this all sounds very “natural wine, cool kids only, grown-ups not allowed”, please know that it’s not that kind of bar.

Advertisement

There are 20-somethings wearing ironic Crocs, sure, but there are also mums in gymwear popping by for the heroic wedge of cheesecake with Pedro Ximenez cream ($16), or longer catch-ups over a charcuterie plate ($33).

That spread of quality meats features LP’s chewy saucisson sec made in Marrickville, and wide ribbons of Martins Ridge Farm capocollo (also known as gabagool, the smallgood hit of the summer). Cheese and tinned fish bulk up the deli offering, while a longer bistro menu is the drawcard on weekends.

I was only expecting Merimbula-born Pennefather to throw up a smattering of snacks and local seafood, to be honest, not a full bistro carte of duck frites ($38), steak frites ($45) and crab and snapper pie ($32). Nice one. Should have booked an extra night at the Hillcrest motel.

Steak frites with smoked anchovy butter.
Steak frites with smoked anchovy butter.Nick Parkinson

That steak – draped in smoked anchovy butter and escorted by salty fries – occasionally steps across the line of over-seasoned, but it’s still a serviceable go-to for anyone keen to drop $345 on a bottle of Mount Mary 2017 Quintet, or $60 on a Little Frances 2022 Shiraz from Beechworth.

Advertisement

I wish I could tell you more about the snapper pie, but there were too many other beaut-sounding things to try: a calamari and guanciale skewer ($13), for instance, slick with lemon butter and a rough-and-ready salmoriglio, Sicily’s answer to chimichurri. (Guanciale, meanwhile, is one of the tastiest forms of cured pig’s cheek around.)

Balmain bug salad with beans, kohlrabi and Espelette pepper.
Balmain bug salad with beans, kohlrabi and Espelette pepper.Nick Parkinson

There’s a help-yourself fridge of acid-driven wines to pair with that nicely charcoaled squid, or a salad of poached Balmain bugs, snappy local beans and kohlrabi remoulade ($32). A liberal dash of fiery Espelette pepper takes the bugs from “pretty good” to “tell your friends”, and also enhances butterflied and grilled garfish in a pool of confident beurre blanc ($32).

A crumbed flathead sandwich ($15) with creamy sauce gribiche on white bread is pleasant enough, albeit forgettable, but the melting gruyere and ham hock croquette ($8), fixed to the plate with black pepper aioli, is one of the most flavour-forward snacks I’ve encountered all year. NB: it’s heavy. One per
person will do.

A rye whiskey Manhattan ($22) is deftly stirred down; gin martinis ($22) are cold and clean. The last thing I want to do the next day is drive the six hours back to Sydney.

Advertisement
The spread of ambitious, locally run wine bars is one of the best things to happen across regional NSW over the past five years.

“Maybe we should open our own country-town place like this,” I suggest to my wife, not for the first time. I said the same thing at Bar Que Sera in Sawtell, and Hey Rosey in Orange, and Stonefruit in Tenterfield, and Vecina in Newcastle (which isn’t really the country, but, you know).

The spread of ambitious, locally run wine bars is one of the best things to happen across regional NSW over the past five years, and there’s still so much opportunity for young operators out there.

It isn’t gentrification – the pubs and clubs and pizza shops will be fine – it’s more options beyond the same old supermarket chardonnays flogged off for $10 a glass. Bermagui, Armidale, Evans Head – you’re up next.

The low-down

Vibe: Surry Hills meets the Sapphire Coast

Go-to dish: Grilled calamari and guanciale skewer with salmoriglio ($13)

Drinks: Wide-ranging choice of natural-leaning wines to take away or drink-in; well-executed cocktails and interesting spirits

Cost: About $140 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Continue this series

Your October hit list: The hot, new and just-reviewed places to check out, right now
Up next
Bistro Grenier

This funky new bistro is a bit French, a bit somewhere else, and a whole lot of Newtown

The loft space above Odd Culture becomes the dark and moody Bistro Grenier.

Go-to dish: Coral trout and its parts.

Sydney has a new three-hat restaurant, and it’s in a former pub

Josh Niland’s tasting menu showcases the near-limitless potential of fish. But it’s not all livers and eyes and “oh, my!”

Previous
Sails overlooks Lavender Bay, Luna Park, the bridge and beyond.

If you’ve ever searched ‘harbourside restaurants with a view’ this revamped diner will float your boat

Sails had recently had a major renovation, and now feels like a relaxed luxury weekender where you’ll want to linger.

See all stories
Callan BoysCallan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement

Original URL: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/goodfood/sydney-eating-out/the-regional-wine-bar-with-a-menu-so-good-i-should-have-booked-an-extra-night-20240912-p5ka6s.html