SIPPERS is a family-owned cocktail bar in Bucharest’s Old Town, run by Diana Voicu and her husband, Iulian. Just the two of us, our team and our guests. It opened as SIP Bucharest Cocktail Bar on Covaci 12 in August 2023, became SIPPERS in February 2026, and moved to Covaci 23 on 20 May 2026.
Diana
Originally from Cluj-Napoca, Diana started working in hospitality during her university holidays, while studying Biology at Babeș-Bolyai University. She has always loved people and the genuine connections between them. What began as a summer job slowly became her path.
In Dublin she grew quickly through her first teams and became a manager. There she discovered how much she loves building teams where people feel good together. Wherever she worked, she held on to one idea: a good team isn’t just a group of people working side by side. It can become a small family.
For Diana, hospitality leaves little room for “good enough”. She doesn’t look for shortcuts. She believes in things done with care, down to the last detail, from the way a team works together to what finally ends up in a guest’s glass.
Perhaps the simplest thing that says it all is her reaction when the door opens and a guest walks in. Especially when they come back. That’s when Diana is truly over the moon.
Iulian
Born in Bucharest, Iulian used to say about hospitality: “Me? Never!” After a short time studying Political Science at SNSPA and Journalism at the University of Bucharest, he left for Dublin, where some of his best friends were waiting.
He fell for Irish hospitality almost instantly. Against all expectations, the first bar he ever stepped behind was a hotel bar. Its almost military standards, mixed with the Irish spirit, perhaps one of the most relaxed and joyful ways of looking at life, woke up a passion he never knew he had.
He started reading, learning and spending whole nights trying to understand the world behind the bar. He grew fast, moving from one business to the next, and every place added something.
For Iulian, a cocktail isn’t finished just because the recipe says so. If he isn’t blown away by his own creation, he will never put it in front of anyone else. For him, the standard starts before the first guest takes a sip.
Dublin
Diana and Iulian met in Dublin as ordinary colleagues. She was promoted first, to Restaurant Manager and then General Manager. When Iulian became Bar Manager, the owner told them something neither of them has forgotten:
“Normally, I wouldn’t have two managers who are a couple. But you deserve this chance and I won’t take it from you. Just know that if you two break up, you’ll lose your job, not her. It would be impossible for you to keep working together as managers.”
They didn’t break up. Quite the opposite. Ten months later they were married, and around them grew a team of almost 45 people, bartenders, waiters and chefs, who stayed together for years and worked more like a family than a team.
At some point Iulian left the company. But they always missed working together again.
A handwritten sign on Covaci Street
Moving back to Romania was never the plan. Opening a cocktail bar in Bucharest, even less so. But sometimes important things don’t begin with a plan. They begin with a wish.
In May 2023, on the second-to-last day of a holiday, we walked past Covaci 12 and Diana spotted a handwritten A4 sign in the window: for rent. It felt perfect, a place where the two of us could work together again, just us. We saw the space on the last day of the holiday and, with no plan at all, shook hands on the spot. We flew back to Dublin the next day, handed in our notice, and three weeks later we were home, starting a new road.
Three months later, on 8 August 2023, we opened SIP Bucharest Cocktail Bar, with no expectations at all. The beginning was hard, with ups and downs. But we met new people, made real connections and true friendships, and a real community grew around the bar. In February 2026 we changed our name, naturally, to SIPPERS.
Covaci 23
The space had grown too small for us. Walking down the same street as in May 2023, this time on our way home, we saw another A4 sign. This time it was printed, and in English: For rent. Just 60 metres away, we had the chance to move into a much bigger space and shape it exactly the way we’d always wanted.
20 May 2026. SIPPERS, Covaci 23. A dream.
A bigger home also meant a bigger family. Adam, Adrian and Cristian joined us, each bringing their own energy, their own story and the same care for every guest who walks through the door. They didn’t just join a team. They joined the SIPPERS family, and it already feels like they’ve always been part of it.
Why we do it
The guest. That’s all.
We are a family business, and we run SIPPERS the way we’d welcome people into our own home. Our motivation, without long explanations and without clichés, is to see happy people. Every smile keeps us going. Everyone who walks through the door should leave with a smile. That’s where everything starts.
The idea
A complete bar in Bucharest. A place you come to for one of our unique creations, a classic cocktail made properly, something new, a glass of wine, or simply for a “good drink”, as we like to call it.
A bar where the quality doesn’t depend on what you choose from the menu, and the hospitality doesn’t change from one guest to another.
What’s next
We have a few surprises lined up. We want to grow, to develop and, hopefully, to tell you more soon.
But there’s one thing we don’t want to lose along the way: what brought us here. Staying just as personal, with the same attention to people, the same care for what goes into the glass, and the same feeling that when you walk through the door, you’ve come to a place where someone is genuinely happy to see you.
Come and say hello: see our menu or book a table.
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