The former Congress Bar & Grill in Portland will reopen Friday under a new name and new ownership.
The restaurant, at 617 Congress St., has been renamed CBG, and will be open every day from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., according to co-owner Jason Loring, who also owns the Portland restaurants Nosh and Slab.
Loring’s business partner in CBG is Michael Fraser, who owns the Roma Cafe and Brahmhall Pub in Portland. Loring and Fraser are also partners in Hunker Down, a restaurant at the Sugarloaf ski resort in Carrabassett Valley.
The new CBG menu is a mix of casual-but-updated burgers, sandwiches, salads in the range of $12 to $14, plus a selection of dishes in the $12 to $26 range, such as Chicken Noodle Paitan (fried chicken, chicken broth, vegetables, ramen noodles, wonton and chives), Steak Frites, and a Crispy Pork Chop with fried egg, spaetzle and lemon. The “CBG Garbage Plate” is a fun amalgam of French fries, American chop suey, a fried egg, hot sauce, onions and spicy aioli for $14.
The CBG location has a long history of serving casual food. The space was once home to the popular Norm’s Bar & Grill, and then, in the late 1990s, it became Congress Bar & Grill.
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