The comedy trio are adding a new level to their nostalgic Italian diner Johnny, Vince & Sam’s – and they’re not the only Melbourne hospitality operators scaling up on-site.
Whether Instagram-famous comedy troupe Sooshi Mango cracks you up or makes you cringe, the unlikely success they’ve had translating their act into Carlton restaurant Johnny, Vince & Sam’s – named for the Italian dad characters they embody – is undeniable.
“Once someone said to us, when we did our very first [comedy] show, that it was so much better than they thought it was gonna be,” says Joe Salanitri, one-third of Sooshi Mango. “I think that’s what they think about the restaurant, too.”
When Joe, his brother Carlo and their mate Andrew Manfre opened the red-sauce Italian joint in mid-2023 with no bookings, the queues took Lygon Street (and social media) by storm. Fans were aching to dine in a painstaking recreation of nonna’s house, right down to the double-layered tablecloths: first lace, then plastic.
“We knew we could get them in,” says Joe, “but the food had to be good enough to get them back.”
The trio recruited two industry veterans, Johnny Di Francesco (400 Gradi) and Dani Zeini (Royal Stacks) to help with the menu and operations, respectively.
Eighteen months on, taking a gamble on a concept that could’ve been written off as a gimmick has paid off.
“We still have lines out the door … people are definitely coming back,” says Manfre. It’s given them the confidence to expand their Italian empire.
To keep up with demand – and hopefully drum up more – the former offices above Johnny, Vince & Sam’s will open next Friday as a new 110-person dining room.
It has a similar nostalgic Italianate vibe as downstairs, but is even more immersive – and there’s a 3am licence. “We’ll pump the music and lower the lights on Friday and Saturday,” says Carlo.
Guests will enter via a daggy, floral-wallpapered stairwell and through a purpose-built ’70s-era brick archway into a time capsule of a room, with brown corduroy banquettes, “my-mum-had-that!” knickknacks, and a “good room” through amber glass doors.
A dedicated upstairs kitchen will serve new dishes, including lasagne.
That’s not all the guys have on the burner, though. They were “very honoured” to be crowned this year’s Moomba Monarchs ahead of the festival in March. (“Moomba wants us? That’s wild,” says Joe. “Well, not us, our characters!” Manfre quips.)
They’re set to jump on Melbourne’s sandwich bandwagon, plotting a shop for the inner-city but remaining tight-lipped on the details.
Manfre says, “We can tell you, but we’d have to kill you”.
While Johnny, Vince & Sam’s has moved on up, several other Melbourne dining (and drinking) favourites are seizing opportunities to take on more real estate next door, snapping up neighbouring spots to grow their existing footprint.
It’s a welcome trend for hospitality operators in an industry plagued by cost-of-living pressures and recent closures.
As well as opening Bar Olo, The Age Good Food Guide 2025 New Restaurant of the Year, on Nicholson Street in April, hatted Italian institution Scopri unveiled a 20-seat private dining room in the building to the left, in what was once the Carlton Arts Centre.
With only a small private dining space upstairs, “We had to knock back so many requests for functions and events,” says Anthony Scutella, who owns the restaurant with his wife Alison Foley.
Now, thanks to the new ground-floor room connected to Scopri, “We’ve had so many enquiries, especially from the wine industry, that we can [facilitate],” he says.
Nearby on Rathdowne Street, the freshly hatted Bar Bellamy is also doubling down, taking over the adjoining corner site to open Melitta, a more affordable sibling bar, in April. It’ll serve pre-batched cocktails and Mediterranean-inspired skewers.
Service that makes everyone feel like a regular defines Bar Bellamy. So for owners Dani and Oska Whitehart, any secondary venue had to be close enough that they could remain intrinsically linked to both.
“That was a huge part of it,” Dani says. “As is being able to retain guests who want to wait for a table [at Bar Bellamy].”
Keeping a captive audience engaged was also the thinking behind the new venue at St Kilda icon The Espy. Sunroom turns the former Ichi Ni site – to the right of the multifaceted pub – into an atrium-like, greenery-laden bar. “Our goal was … to bring more to our customers and our community,” says manager Ben Burgess.
And in Northcote, bursting-at-the-seams bakery Akimbo will increase its viennoiserie program – and wholesale capabilities – when production spills into the old photography studio next door. It’s a cost-effective way to scale up, says co-owner Louis McCoy.
“If we opened a new location [elsewhere], it would’ve meant spending $100,000 on a new oven. Now we can just knock down a wall and it’s Akimbo 1.5 instead of 2.0.”
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