Vito's Sydney hands its kitchen to Michael Fox
Michael Fox leaves Carbone in Hong Kong to run the pass at Vito's Sydney, the Italian-American restaurant that opened on Bridge Street on October 30.
Vito's Sydney, the Italian-American restaurant that opened in the city's CBD on October 30, has put Michael Fox in charge of its kitchen, pulling the chef away from Carbone in Hong Kong.
Vito's Sydney occupies the heritage-listed Burns Philp Building at 11 Bridge Street, the address that previously housed Rockpool. The project comes from Sunday Co., the hospitality group behind Morrison's Oyster Bar & Grill and Whalebridge, led by managing director Brett Sergeant.
Vito's Sydney by the numbers
Brett Sergeant: "We signed a 25-year lease. You spend that sort of capital, you need tenure to get a return."
The fit-out cost more than AU$8 million, according to Gourmet Traveller, and runs to a 24-carat gold-leaf mosaic entry, oxblood leather banquettes and chandeliers weighing hundreds of kilograms apiece. The dining room seats 170 across a ground floor and mezzanine, under a 25-year lease.
"We signed a 25-year lease," Sergeant told Broadsheet. "You spend that sort of capital, you need tenure to get a return."
A chef shaped by three continents
Fox started out at Mt Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills before spending two years under Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in England. He returned to Australia as sous chef at Vue de Monde in Melbourne, then at Cecconi's Cantina, where he was named Young Chef of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2011.
From there he led Henry and the Fox in Melbourne before moving to Hong Kong, first at Cecconi's and then as chef de cuisine at Carbone. A stint at Merivale in Sydney followed, including a head chef role at Sushi E and a hand in opening Jam Record Bar.
At Vito's Sydney, Fox works alongside group culinary director David Clarke on a menu built around handmade pasta and wood-grilled meat and seafood: a ten-layer lasagne, scallop agnolotti with prawns, chicken al mattone and wood-grilled hapuka, using Bass Strait beef and Sommerlad chicken among its suppliers.
Pastry chef Lauren Eldridge, named Chef of the Year at the 2026 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards, handles desserts such as cannoli and a tricolore bombe Alaska. Sommelier Antoine Heurtier has built the Vito's Sydney wine list to around 400 labels, after a team research trip through New York's Italian-American dining rooms.
A late-night bar menu, including an 18-inch New York-style pizza, is due to follow once the main dining room settles into its routine. The opening lands in a busy fortnight for Sydney hospitality, days after the Opera Bar's own reopening was announced, and alongside a run of hotel-kitchen hires such as Andaz Gold Coast's new chefs.
