CINCINNATI, Ohio — Safi Wine Bar, chef Jose Salazar’s Moroccan-inspired wine bar in Over-the-Rhine, will close next week, with its final day set for Saturday, Nov. 7, according to a social media post reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“There’s a lot of history within these walls, and although our time here is coming to an end, we’re proud of everything that started at this corner,” the bar’s post said, in a statement quoted by the Cincinnati Enquirer. The announcement did not say why the bar is closing, the Enquirer reported.
Safi sits one block from Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine and built its following on small plates, fine wine and what the Enquirer described as a relaxed “Marrakesh nightlife” vibe. Its outdoor seating — an alley dressed with picnic tables, plants and string lights — drew a particular lament from one social media user, who said they would miss enjoying it, the Enquirer reported.
The corner carries personal history for Salazar: the building is also where he first opened a restaurant in 2013, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. That makes the Nov. 7 farewell a closing not just of one concept, but of the address where his Cincinnati restaurant career began.
For Over-the-Rhine, the loss lands in a neighborhood whose dining scene has been built, corner by corner, by independent operators willing to take a chance on it. A wine bar built around Moroccan small plates and a lantern-lit alley was part of that bet, and its regulars now have one week to make a final visit.
The bar’s setting was part of its identity. One block from Washington Park, Safi asked Cincinnati drinkers to slow down — small plates instead of a full dinner service, wine instead of a crowded bar rail, and an alley strung with lights instead of a storefront built for turnover, in the Enquirer’s description of the room and its outdoor seating. That pace is part of what its farewell post appeared to be marking when it spoke of everything that started at the corner.
Just as notable is what the announcement did not contain. The Enquirer reported that the post offered no reason for the decision, named no final-week events or specials, and said nothing about what — if anything — will take Safi’s place in the building where Salazar first opened in 2013. For a closing with a set date, those unanswered questions leave regulars with a simple, time-limited certainty: the bar is open until Nov. 7, and then it is not.
What happens next: Safi serves its final day on Saturday, Nov. 7. The Enquirer reported no reason was given for the closure and no successor for the space has been announced, so the corner’s next chapter — like Salazar’s plans for it — remains to be seen.