When it opened on Front Street in Lahaina, Maui in 2014, Sale Pepe immediately became a Lahaina institution: a trattoria-style restaurant where real Italian cooking met Maui’s easy warmth. After the 2023 wildfires destroyed both the restaurant and the owners’ home, many wondered if Sale Pepe would ever return. Michele and Qiana Di Bari chose not just to rebuild, but to reaffirm their vision of Italian food that is both deeply traditional and uniquely suited to its Hawaiian setting. The result is a restaurant that once again draws locals and travelers alike with a menu that balances classic salumi, artisanal pastas, and wood-fired pizzas with a rare sense of integrity.
The Calabrese Piccante pizza from Sale Pepe’s wood-burning oven.
Kim Westerman
Starters: A Taste of Northern Italy
The best way to begin a meal at Sale Pepe is with bresaola, a top round of beef that has been air-dried and salt-cured into thin, crimson slices. Served simply, the salumi is lean yet intensely flavorful, with a gentle chew and concentrated savoriness that speaks of the Italian Alps. A drizzle of pungent olive oil and a scattering of parsley adron the bresaola, and on the side are Puglian taralli, Pecorino Romano, and pickled tomatoes and grapes (yes, picked grapes!). The meat itself is restrained, elegant, and utterly transporting.
Bresaola at Sale Pepe’s new Lahaina, Maui restaurant.
Kim Westerman
Pasta with Personality
Sale Pepe has earned a reputation for its pastas, made fresh daily, and two dishes in particular illustrate the kitchen’s range.
Fusilli con pesto di barbabietole is Sale Pepe’s fusilli with beet pesto, with ingredients from a local Maui farm.
Kim Westerman
The fusilli con pesto di barbabietole showcases Maui’s farm-to-table ethos. Using beets from ‘Oko’a Farms, Michele crafts a pesto that is as striking visually as it is on the palate. Vivid magenta spirals of corkscrew pasta are coated in the earthy-sweet beet sauce, balanced with nuts and cheese to give depth. It is a dish that celebrates the island’s agricultural richness while remaining true to Italian technique.
Squid-ink spaghetti with Kaua’i shrimp and spicy Calabrian ‘nduja.
Kim Westerman
In contrast, the spaghetti neri con gamberi e ‘nduja is a study in bold flavors and coastal indulgence. Jet-black sepia-infused pasta provides a dramatic base for Kaua’i shrimp, whose sweetness plays against the fiery punch of spicy Calabrian salami. The ’nduja melts into the sauce, lending heat and complexity that wrap around the seafood without overwhelming it. This is pasta that demands attention — it’s intense, satisfying, and unforgettable.
Pizza from the Heart
No visit to Sale Pepe is complete without one of their pizzas, and the Calabrese Piccante delivers a perfect marriage of simplicity and fire. San Marzano tomatoes form the base, sweet and tangy, while mozzarella stretches luxuriously across a crust that is both crisp and pliant. The star topping is the spicy Calabrese salami, which renders just enough fat to mingle with the sauce, creating a pizza that is perfectly, paradoxically rustic and refined. It’s the kind of dish that reminds you why pizza became Italy’s most beloved export: elemental, soulful, and impossible to resist.
Sale Pepe’s wood-fired pizzas are the star of the show.
Kim Westerman
The Sale Pepe Experience
What unites these dishes is a dedication to authenticity, executed with consistency and heart. Qiana runs the dining room, and she designed it, too: warm lighting, a welcoming vibe, and the kind of buzz that signals a full house almost every night. Reservations are a must, but the reward is a meal that feels personal, crafted with both precision and affection. Sale Pepe’s strength lies in its ability to make classics feel fresh while never losing sight of their origins.
Michele and Qiana di Bari at their newly rebuilt Lahaina restaurant, Sale Pepe.
Kim Westerman
Sale Pepe is the first restaurant lost in the Lahaina fire to rebuild and reopen in Lahaina proper — and that is worthy of celebration.
A Sibling in Kāʻanapali
For those who crave the Sale Pepe experience but want something quicker or more casual, Michele and Qiana have launched Via! by Sale Pepe at Whalers Village in Kāʻanapali. Open for both lunch and dinner, Via! offers pizza by the slice, customizable pastas, and salads in a fast-casual format. It does not attempt to replicate the intimacy or depth of the Lahaina flagship but instead extends the brand’s ethos with quality ingredients, Italian technique, and Maui’s own agricultural bounty — to diners on the go. It is a smart complement: one restaurant for lingering meals, the other for quick cravings, both with the same beating Italian heart.
Maui’s Best Italian Restaurant is Back!
Qiana is from Brooklyn, and Michele is from Milan. They met on Maui, and their love story continues in the beloved town of Lahaina, where they bring Italy to you. For diners, a meal here is not just about the deeply good food — it is about resilience, memory, and the simple joy of breaking bread together after hardship.
Dining and Cooking