Spotlight Sydney : The Dining

MARK & VINNY'S

Words By Bec Doyle | June 15 2021

Nestled in the trendy Sydney neighborhood of Surry Hills, Mark & Vinny’s is the restaurant Sydney has been waiting for. Sydney is not bustling with tons of plant based options, slightly behind the curve when it comes to vegan cuisine... I spoke with Vince Pizzinga, of Mark & Vinny’s, and he explained how they intend to change that.

While living in LA, Vince says his eyes were opened to the possibilities vegan cuisine had to offer, and credits his first visit to Cafe Gratitude as a catalyst to his interest in plant based food. “One day I had this idea that I wanted to give vegans the experience of having eggs on toast. It was really as simple as that.” Well Vince, we vegans thank you for it! After discovering a process called reverse spherification that was widely used by chef’s, Vince says he ordered some equipment on Amazon and prototyped the very first vegan egg! After sharing this idea with restaurateur Mark Filippelli, Mark was all in, and two years later the pair opened their first restaurant together - Matcha Milkbar, a completely plant based restaurant, and it was a huge success!

In their latest venture, Mark & Vinny’s, the pair sought to bring all they had learned and developed at Matcha Milkbar to a pasta bar! They innovatively include nutrient rich ingredients in their dishes, particularly their pastas like their spirulina linguine, or activated charcoal pasta found in their Lasagne Vegana. “Spirulina is just this incredible ingredient, it's a high potency form of protein, astronauts use it.” With their menu changing seasonally the possibilities are endless. Vince says they like to keep the menu new and exciting for their regular customers and give their chefs the opportunity “to stretch their legs and be creative.” Vince also says that using seasonal produce is extremely important to them. Local, fresh produce is always going to taste better than something that's travelled thousands of miles. “Not to mention the amount of resources it takes to ship ‘a blue-berry’ from continent to continent.. It’s part of a bigger problem that we have in modern society, that we demand that all things are available all the time.”

Vince Pizzinga, photographed by Glenn Nutley, inside Mark & Vinny’s

Popular plant based starter, Fiora Di Zucca

Offering an 80% plant based menu, vegans and non-vegans alike frequent the restaurant, and that’s no accident. We all have that friend who thinks vegan food is gross, without really knowing anything about it. Mark and Vinny’s has succeeded in introducing plant based dishes to non-vegans in a very unobtrusive way. Vince says many of their customers are surprised to learn that the majority of their dishes are vegan. “All of our starters are vegan, so people come in, even if they’re not vegan and order a starter and realize, without even knowing it, that they are eating something delicious. It's a really powerful tool to dispel any preconceptions they might have had of vegan food being boring or tasteless. So you’ve converted this person into having a whole new outlook.”

Charcoal Bucatini, Mark & Vinny’s vegan take on the Classic Carbonara

Vince describes the Charcoal Bucatini as the standout dish of the restaurant. “The idea was that we wanted to have a pasta carbonara on the menu, my favorite Italian dish, but we wanted to make it plant based. In place of the emulsion that you would normally get in a pasta carbonara, which would normally be made from a real egg yolk and parmesan cheese, we make it out of cashew cream and serve the vegan egg on top of the pasta,” - with smoked mushroom pancetta as their clever alternative to the classic recipe. Mark and Vinny’s feature a Gnocchi special and pasta special, which are rotated seasonally. When one is vegan the other is not. At present they offer an insanely delicious Vegan Gnocchi with pumpkin seeds and a soy milk ricotta, made fresh everyday by head chef Nicole Coelho, who is also vegan. This delicious, fresh vegan ricotta, is also featured in their Fiora di Zucca, stuffed zucchini flowers, another highlight from their plant based selection of starters.

Vegan Gnocchi Special with Pumkin Seeds & Soy Milk Ricotta

Although known for their delicious pastas, there are a few other items on the menu that would be criminal not to indulge in. Yes I’m talking about dessert. Their vegan Orange Blossom Panna Cotta paired with dehydrated fruits and persian fairy floss, and vegan Apple Crostata are a highlight for any vegan usually starved for after-dinner dolce options. It's also worth noting Mark and Vinny go that extra mile and ensure they feature vegan wines on the menu, including the Nunc Pinot Noir from Victoria, 5452 Watervale Riesling and Tarot Prosecco, both from South Australia.

So if you’re in Sydney, or plan on visiting this glorious city, and you're looking for an incredible dining experience that you can enjoy with a group of friends, regardless of food preference, Mark & Vinny’s is the answer. And who knows the experience might just enlighten your non-vegan friends to the delectable world of plant based cuisine.

Orange Blossom Panna Cotta

Vegan Apple Crostata