Breaking Bread: Vinny's Bread & Wine, Oatley

Vinny's Bread & Wine is a sandwich shop serving delicious freshly made sandwiches on house baked focaccia. By day they sell bread aka sandwiches and by night it turns into a wine bar. Located right near Oatley train station find out what the sandwiches are like and what you have to try when you get there!

Mr NQN and I are headed to Vinny's on a Monday at lunchtime. "It's going to be a quick lunch," I promise him. The reason why I chose a Monday was because I wanted to make sure that I got a hold of one of their maritozzi buns. These divine Roman brioche style buns are filled with cream and word was that Vinny's signature salted honey pistachio were amazing. I was worried that they'd disappear fast on weekends so we decided to come on a Monday.

The team behind Vinny's are 3 lifelong friends: Simon Nardo, Louis Sobb and Jackson Sobb who grew up in and around Oatley. It was born out of their passion for sandwiches, share plates and wine/spritz and the type of eateries found throughout countries in the Mediterranean. The name Vinny is a persona that fits a bit of all three owners. Simon explains, "He epitomises...good food, good drinks, having fun and being authentic whilst not taking himself too seriously."

Vinny's Bread & Wine has been open since October 2024 and the menu is short and sweet with 8 sandwich choices all for $18 each. The Number One meatball sandwich is a must order for me because I've never met a meatball I didn't like, but I'm also drawn to the Number Four (hot salami, nduja, sun dried tomato, rocket, parmesan) and the Number Seven (chicken cotoletta). And then I see some fresh fig and stracciatella cheese focaccia on the counter and before long I'm ordering $80 worth of bread and buns.

The focaccia comes out first - each sandwich is made fresh so you need to wait about 5-10 minutes so this is good to nibble on. There's fresh baked balsamic figs on top of the focaccia and a tear of stracciatella cheese. It's luscious and sweet, a bit more sea salt would be great to balance it but the focaccia is soft, airy and fluffy with a light, crisp top. Their focaccia has an overnight fermentation using a 90% hydration dough.

Mr NQN enjoys a coffee while I go for the strawberry punch which has a good amount of sweetness. I would say that this is more on the dry side of drinks which I like but if you like super sweet you might need to add sugar.

The number one has Nonna's meatballs and sauce, basil pesto and shaved parmesan and a salty hit with brown anchovies in their Calabrian chilli sauce that I get in every second or third bite. This sandwich is untoasted and thick, soft and spongy. The meatballs and sauce are soft and luscious and there's a layer of fresh rocket. We added chilli to it which adds another element of flavour. I had all intentions to have just a few bites but I can't stop.

I love cotoletta so I bypassed my usual love of spicy cured meats to try the Number Seven with chicken cotoletta, oozy stracciatella cheese, salsa verde, provolone and roma tomatoes. We also add some chilli to it for $2 extra and this sandwich is served warm and toasted. It used to be a Friday and Saturday special but I can see why it got promoted to the main squad. Because this is toasted, it is flattened a bit so it's slightly easier to eat. Mr NQN is quite taken by this one but I love the number one. But because each sandwich is cut in half it is easy to share them.

Then we come to the maritozzi. The brioche buns for these are also baked in house and these buns are big and filled with a generous amount of cream. They keep these at room temperature so that the brioche is soft and tender so that means on a hot day like today the cream is in danger of overspilling and the downy soft brioche barely holds it in. The signature flavour is the salted honey pistachio and I sink my teeth into the bun. It's incredibly soft and pillowy and just collapses in the mouth with every bite. It's very easy to eat half of one and not even notice that it is half gone it is that light.

While the salted honey pistachio maritozzi is always available, I couldn't resist buying the Milo maritozzi too. And this is no runner up. The malted chocolate flavour of the Milo is so utterly moreish I can't pick a favourite out of the two. Some of the past flavours of maritozzi have been: fairy bread, double choc, pistachio cream, tiramisu and rose water for Valentines day.

There's no way we can finish this so we take the leftovers home and there's enough for a quick dinner with dessert!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you go visit places during quieter times or days so that you don't miss out on popular items? Which sandwich would you like out of the two?

This meal was independently paid for.

Vinny's

Shop 4, 12A Oatley Parade, Oatley 2223

Bread Opening Hours Wednesday - Monday 7am-3pm, Saturday - Sunday 8am-3pm

Wine Opening Hours Thursday - Sunday 4pm-10pm

Closed Tuesdays