CITY GUIDES | HAWAI’I
Sale Pepe Returns to Maui With Cacio e Pepe Pizza and a Beard-Nominated Chef
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By Mei Chen | Feb. 16, 2026
Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina is the kind of place everybody needs more of: warm, busy, and built around the idea that a pizza can be both casual and precise.
Chef Michele di Bari runs it with his wife Qiana di Bari, and the food still leans into simple pleasures: handmade pastas, a focused pizza program, and a bread section that deserves to be ordered on purpose instead of treated like table filler.
Start with the fettunta, a simple slice of toasted bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil, because it tells the truth about the kitchen right away. Then get the focaccia gonfia, their puffed, airy focaccia served with extra-virgin olive oil and herbs, which eats like a warm-up act that outshines plenty of headliners.
For the pizzas, the cacio e pepe—pecorino romano, fior di latte, cracked black pepper—is a signature here. The uovo, pancetta, pecorino pizza folds in San Marzano tomato, a poached egg, bacon, and more pecorino, and it feels like a late-night order that happens to be quite excellent.
After the 2023 wildfire, the restaurant reopened in March 2025 in a new Lahaina home at Emerald Plaza Center, and di Bari followed that with a 2026 James Beard semifinalist nod for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific. Everyone loves a comeback story, but it hits harder when the comeback involves pizza this good.
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