Like a magic trick, café Common Man Stan turns into a natural wine bar named Common Man Night Shift with the pulling of decorative roller blinds and flashy vintage cinema projections at the strike of 6 o'clock. Once a travelling wine bar – you may know it from its regular pop-ups around town – Common Man Night Shift has ditched the nomadic lifestyle for permanent digs on Stanley Street.
What's new is the sourdough-focused menu from chef de cuisine Paul Albert of Le Vin, Levain, a sundown takeover previously at Tiong Bahru Bakery's Eng Hoon flagship. His reprisal at Common Man Night Shift makes the perfect partner to the bar's natural wine selection, doubling down on wild fermentation techniques, locally sourced ingredients and a minimal waste philosophy.
Whet your appetite with the sourdough couvert ($12), featuring a trio of naturally leavened loaves served with house-churned butter sprinkled with Maldon salt and house fermented pickles. But don't go overboard with the bread. Instead, make space for highlights like the squid ink crackers ($13) dipped in an intensely briny prawn dip, made from the heads and shells of prawns used in another dish (the Blue Prawn Rolls) and topped in 'fake' (but convincing) caviar – sago pearls marinated in soy sauce and flavoured with seaweed and fresh coriander tartare.
More to try: the sourdough karaage ($20) satisfies your fried chicken cravings but with more finesse – the juices of the long-marinated chicken are locked in by a subtly tangy sourdough batter, offset by the sweet-sour of the kimchi mayonnaise. The Spanish mackerel rillette ($14) has to be eaten in a mouthful with house fermented miso grain mustard and creme fraiche with green oil, while the sourdough trend continues with a rotating selection of light, crusty pizzas (from $20).
There's no going to a natural wine bar without trying a bottle from the in-house selection of over 80 natural, organic, biodynamic and sustainably farmed labels. Sourced straight from winemakers in France, Italy, Chile and Spain, these wines are hand-harvested, spontaneously fermented, have no added sulfites and are most importantly, delicious. We recommend the Brutal Ancestral 2019, a unique and devilishly fruity Pet-Nat that will cut through the fattier dishes on the menu; as well as the La Scarabée Qui Bulle 2014, a gourmet Grand Cru chosen by Common Man Night Shift's wine curator Eduardo Bayo as a subtly sweet and bubbly end to a heavy meal.
Clink glasses in-store, or pick up a bottle online at drunkenfarmer.sg.
