Safi, the wine bar in Over-the-Rhine owned by popular Cincinnati restaurateur Chef Jose Salazar, is temporarily closing after this Sunday. When it reopens just over a week later, the space will have a new look, new hours, a new menu and a renewed focus on serving the neighborhood’s residents.
Salazar’s original intent was for the space to be a wine bar first and foremost, with Moroccan-influenced small plates available for snacking. But over time, it “morphed into more of a formal restaurant” that sometimes required reservations to get in, according to the chef.
“We’re making Safi what it was always intended to be … more of a laid-back neighborhood wine bar, more approachable, the kind of place where people can pop in before dinner, after dinner or just because,” Salazar said.
Salazar opened Safi in the 1401 Republic St. space in 2024 after running his self-named restaurant in the same space for a decade prior. In November 2025, he reopened the eponymous spot inside the former Saks Fifth Avenue building—now the headquarters of Paycor—on Fifth Street downtown.
The new Safi is shifting away from its Moroccan focus to more of a global outlook in both wine and food. For example, the much-loved burger and fries from Salazar’s shuttered OTR eatery Goose & Elder will be making an appearance on the new menu—an announcement that sent shockwaves through Cincinnati’s dining community, surprising Salazar.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did have a feeling people would be excited about the burger … But people have been, like, texting and emailing and leaving comments on social media about it,” he said. “There’s a bit of nostalgia around what we did at Goose & Elder. There was definitely a cult following. We had some very, very loyal customers there, kind of like rabid fans, which I love.”
The updated menu will be more “intentional” in its focus on smaller dishes that work in a bar setting. While Safi was never intended to be a restaurant, it happened naturally over time due to the level of talent in the kitchen.
“Part of why it became a full-scale restaurant is because we have these people with enormous talents who are capable of doing all these wonderful things, and they need to have an outlet for those things,” Salazar said. “They’ll say ‘hey, I want to do this,’ and it’s hard to hold people back from doing those things. And so you say yes. And then next thing you know, you got a full-scale restaurant again.”
Before reopening, Safi will also be transforming its wine program. Wine from all regions, not just the Mediterranean, will be on-hand—with many of the bottles available for to-go purchase. The bar will also be open later, as Safi will now close at 11 p.m. most nights.
In addition, Salazar plans to open the space up to his team members and to other local chefs to host collaborative pop-up dinners and events. It’s part of his plan to “really get back to our roots of being community-based and making sure that we’re there for people.”
For Salazar, who opened his first restaurant back in 2013 in the same building that Safi now occupies, holding on to the place where it all started still feels special.
“I was just in the building this morning … and I was looking outside, and I thought ‘I love this street.’ I love how it has a Parisian feel with the narrowness of the street, it’s very charming,” he said. “There’s people that live across the street who were with us from day one, and they’re still there, and we still have relationships with them. It feels like a real neighborhood, and being from New York, it reminds me of New York as well.”
Safi will temporarily close this Sunday before returning just over a week later, with a projected reopening date of Wednesday, March 25. More details will be available on the bar’s social media pages.