First Look: Bar Vincent Becomes Vin-Cenzo’s, the “Bar Copains of Darlinghurst”

“Some people, I guarantee, are going to hate it,” Sali Sasi tells Broadsheet, the day before the Vin-Cenzo’s friends and family night. “But we just have to be true to who we are and stay true to the new concept.”

The restaurant is the latest effort from Sasi and her partners, husband Nathan Sali and friend Morgan McGlone.

Hoping for love but predicting hate for your new restaurant is a strong stance. Particularly when your other venues – Bar Copains, Bessie’s and Alma’s – are some of the most charismatic and likeable places in Sydney. And especially when you’re talking about somewhere cooking Italian – an adored cuisine – with a menu packed with dishes like fried eggplant, pesto pasta and veal T-bone. Does any of this sound hateable? What’s not to love here?

But Sasi is bracing for impact, because Vin-Cenzo’s will replace Bar Vincent – a clubby little no-nonsense eatery which, in just six years, amassed a large following that far outstripped its modest seat-count. It was a real If you know, you know place that avoided the spotlight but inspired devotion.

Sasi would know. She, Nathan and McGlone were some of Bar Vincent’s biggest admirers – and patrons. So much so that when its owners, Andy Logue and Sarah Simm, were looking to move on, the trio purchased it to keep it going.

“The thing is, it’s not broken, so we don’t need to come in and try to fix it,” Nathan told Broadsheet back in February.

But it was broken and did need fixing.

“When we took over we realised that it wasn’t actually a viable business,” says Sali. “We had to make some real quick change because it was haemorrhaging.”

“It was crazy,” McGlone says. “If we had kept going the way it had been going, it would have put too much pressure on our other businesses and we would have had to close.”

Bar Vincent held its final service in June. This Thursday, it reopens as Vin-Cenzo’s.

It’s no longer a preservation project, like Corner 75. No, now it’s a reboot.

“It’s going to be like the Bar Copains of Darlinghurst, but more Italian-leaning,” says McGlone. “You can come in, smash a Martini and some arancini then bounce, or you can stay for some pasta.”

Nathan has totally retooled the menu – but you’ll find nods to the old occupants. Like the chicken and mortadella agnolotti in brodo, which splices together two classic Bar Vincent dishes – the agnolotti and the tortellini in brodo.

There’s also plenty of allusions to dishes from Tre Scalini, the address’s other former tenant, which was the Bar Vincent of the 1980s.

Those references span the freshly painted light-blue walls, where old photos from Tre Scalini now hang alongside new artworks. Studio Gram have given the place a swift and swish uplift, filled with minor but consequential design changes.

The front is dedicated entirely to walk-ins, and the bar seating that once looked into the kitchen has been replaced by a banquette facing the dining room. Capacity has been nearly doubled, thanks to more tightly clustered tables and a new outdoor area. The room’s brighter, and the windows actually let in light now. Vin-Cenzo’s is open to the world.

The plan is for the service and vibe to be polished, but also irreverent and fun. New flourishes like paper tablecloths will mean waiters can write and draw specials directly onto the table. “If you’re a regular that always starts with a Negroni, we’ll write you a note before you arrive to tell you it’s on the way,” says Sali. Supper clubs and late-night end-of-week services designed to take advantage of the building’s rare 3am licence, should be raucous fixtures.

Vin-Cenzo’s will be a lot of things, but it won’t be Bar Vincent. The team’s okay with that and hope you will be too.

“We were doing Bar Vincent and not fully in love with it, because we were trying to please people, and it wasn’t working anyway,” Sali says. “So we thought: people have already made their minds up, so why not just be true to ourselves and our values and create Vin-Cenzo’s instead?”

Vin-Cenzo’s opens at 174 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, on Thursday August 21, 2025.

Vin-Cenzo’s
174 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst

Hours:
Tue & Wed midday–3pm, 5.30pm–midnight
Thu & Fri midday–3pm, 5.30pm–late
Sat midday–late

vin-cenzos.com
@vincenzos_sydney

This week, we’re adding Vin-Cenzo’s to The Hot List, the definitive guide to Sydney’s most essential food and drink experiences.