About eight years ago, when Lee Lathouwers was managing Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos, he got to know a customer named Tony Vincent. Vincent took a liking to the smooth, efficient style of the Chicago-born, Santa Barbara–raised Lathouwers and divulged that he was planting grapevines and building a winery down the road. “I give you my word,” said Vincent to Lathouwers. “If this project gets done, and you’re still around, you’re the guy.”
In 2014, with Vincent Vineyards about to leap the last of countless permitting hurdles, Lathouwers — then semiretired after four decades in the hospitality business — answered the phone to find Vincent offering him that job. “For how many guys in the world today is their word still their bond?” Lathouwers asked me in May, when I visited the almost-done winery. “There’s nothing he can’t do, but he held my hand, made me a promise, and made good on it. People like that still do exist in the world.”
That guy’s full name is Anthony Vincent Zehenni, a Lebanese octogenarian who’s built a fortune developing everything from Hawaiian hotels and Lake Arrowhead resorts to Los Angeles freeways and Nigerian bridges through his Aladdin Developers, Inc. Though turning 83 on September 19, Vincent is still reportedly as vital as ever, whether showing off the collection of vintage cars he keeps under his Sunset Strip high-rise office or reminiscing about the days he hung in Las Vegas with the Rat Pack. “Those were his regular running-around buddies,” said Lathouwers, pointing to a hanging picture of Sinatra, Sammy, and Dean on the wall of the winery’s VIP room.