Two years after wildfires struck Maui, "Lahaina is buzzing," Qiana Di Bari says.
"All you hear in the streets everywhere are the tap of hammers. It's like a constant hum everywhere. There's rebuilding happening everywhere."
On Aug. 8, 2023, fires flamed by winds from a passing storm ravaged parts of the Valley Isle. More than 100 people were killed in the blaze, which destroyed much of Lahaina town.
Qiana and her husband, Michele, are the restauranteurs behind Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina, which was located just behind Lahaina's famed Front Street. The restaurant was lost in the fire but reopened in March — the first Lahaina restaurant lost in the tragedy to rebuild in Lahaina town.
Just months after reopening their original restaurant, the Di Baris have embarked on a new endeavor, opening Via! by Sale Pepe last month at Whaler's Village in Kā‘anapali. Here, they aim to bring a "fast casual twist" to the Italian flavors made popular at its sister restaurant.
Aloha State Daily spoke with the Di Baris ahead of the second anniversary of the fire to talk about their experience during the tragedy, rebuilding and resilience — and their newest endeavor.
Building
The pair, Qiana says, eloped here in 2010 and had a 10-year plan to return. But Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York in 2012, fast-forwarded those plans.
Qiana, who is originally from New York City, worked in the entertainment industry as a manager for hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest and rapper Q-Tip, and also did some movie production.
"When I had our daughter, we thought, I thought, I want to take care of my real baby and focus on the family," she recalled.
Michele is from Italy and has owned restaurants in New York since his early 20s.
In 2011, Qiana says they opened a restaurant together in Brooklyn but decided to move to Maui and rest for a year, focusing on the family.
"But Michele has a really fun, I don't know, hobby," Qiana says with chuckle. "He likes to call 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs for fun and see what's going on in the marketplace."
That's how he stumbled upon a space behind Front Street, "not knowing it was an old KFC with no grease trap, totally gutted. Made a wild deal and the landlord accepted all the terms, and that's how Sale Pepe started," she says. "It wasn't even something we intended to do right away."
They opened quietly in 2014 and grew slowly.
"Little by little, all of the chefs and foodies started coming in and telling their friends and telling theirs, so it became a word-of-mouth kind of a place, kind of like an underground spot. Ten years later, we were at our peak. It was a really great place for community to gather. We are still known for our integrity, slow cooking, the importation of all our product from Italy."
The olive oil, tomato sauce, salumi, cheese, Qiana says "everything comes in." Everything else is local product.
"It's a warm, casual experience but with an elevated product," she continued. "I think that's why it worked."
No alternative
Qiana says there's a "powerful picture somewhere" of the couple and their daughter looking at the ruined space after the fire, "and us being in kind of shock about that."
They were stuck in West Maui after the flames swept through.
"We couldn't get out," Qiana recalled. "They wouldn't let you out unless you were leaving completely because you could not return. ... We had no internet, no cellular service, nothing."
A GoFundMe was established to help the Sale Pepe team, which became a rebuilding fund.
"I think we had the intention of coming back," Qiana says. "I had a lot of thoughts about 9/11 — going through that and seeing New York Downtown being so vibrant today, maybe five years later. I thought 'These things turn around. These places don't die. Growth has to happen. It's just not going to stay like this.' We thought we wanted to be a part of that wave of redevelopment and we knew right from the beginning that we were going to rebuild. The alternative was just too sad. I don't think there was ever an alternative."
Then there was the matter of where to be.
"Our friends owned this place and offered it to us six months after the fire," Qiana says. "That was great, but it was just a warehouse. We had to rebuild it from scratch."
As they went through that process, they were talking to people at Whalers Village, who said a space would be available around this time.
The Di Baris thought it would take about six months to rebuild Sale Pepe's new location and a year for the Whaler's Village space.
"The county and the bureaucracy that we experienced was almost as traumatic as the fire itself, in terms of there being no incentives for businesses to rebuild, no expedited permitting for businesses, no tax abatement — just a lot of discouragement, actually," Qiana says.
She understands the county's focus on getting people back into their homes, but says she's seen a lot of cities "walk and chew gum at the same time. I feel like things go hand-in-hand."
They were about 10 months behind schedule when Sale Pepe reopened in March. You can find them now in Emerald Plaza at 157 Kupuohi St., suite J1.
Rebuilding
"I feel like where we are in Emerald Plaza is a new hub, along with Lahaina Gateway," Qiana says. "In a sense, we're in the center of town again. ... In another sense, it feels like we're on the fringes of something. It feels a little bit like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, where I'm from. But it definitely is a time of growth, for sure, and we're really proud to be the first crazy restauranteurs to rebuild in Lahaina."
The restaurant is three minutes away from their home, their daughter goes to school in West Maui, "and we wanted our restaurant to be home," she says.
Two years out from the fires, how does it feel to reopen Sale Pepe and launch Via!?
"We are part of the new beginning," Michele told ASD. "... We just look ahead now."
Qiana, though, says she's "holding space for both things, because I do think we have to look ahead, but there's a lot of suffering while there's a lot of positivity."
"We see that in the restaurant every night," she continued. "People are coming in and they're feeing reconnected and hopeful and crying over their meatballs that are just the same as they were before the fire. But there's also a sadness and an acknowledgement of everything that has been lost, as well as a lot of talk on the floor even about how hard it is. ... It's hard. We're still in the thick of it. And rebuilding, permitting, budgets, money running out — it's real. Sale Pepe is a place to talk about that and get through it, and it's also a place where people come to celebrate their victories, but we're holding two strong things at the same time for sure. It's not all rainbow and butterflies."
Via!
Qiana wanted a slice of New York-style pizza.
"I was craving a New York slice," she says with a laugh. "I go home every year, but that's not enough. I really thought why can't I find one? Where can I find one? Is that something we can fold into our repertoire? And also, how cool would it be to talk to a different customer?"
The concept for Via! came as a way to reach an audience seeking a "high quality experience" for under $20, Qiana says, "and to speak to the moment right now with locals in terms of offering something of quality from Sale Pepe that won't break the bank," food she says that's accessible, fun and relaxed comfort food.
A recent announcement from the shop notes that Via!'s streamlined menu includes build-your-own pastas, where guests can pair house-made pastas like rigatoni, fusilli or spaghetti with the likes of basil pesto, marinara or parmesan cream sauces; New York- and Roman-style pizzas by the slice; and salads like Caesar and caprese, along with a "curated" antipasti plate.
"The slices were the start because that was just a selfish desire," Qiana says. "Then [Michele] wanted a Romana slice, because that's his favorite slice."
Meanwhile, she says that the build-your-own-pasta is a way to "empower people to play and not get bored and customize their experience for $20. Same fresh pasta, same sauces that we make here in-house at Sale, just a quicker [experience]."
Michele says response to Via! has been "awesome."
Also worth noting: Sale Pepe will donate all proceeds from its margherita pizza throughout August to the Maui Pono Foundation, a grassroots organization that's working to help the Lahaina community affected by the fires with rebuilding.
Connect
Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina
Address: 157 Kupuohi St., suite J1, Lahaina
Hours: 5 to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.
Website: salepepemaui.com, Facebook and Instagram.
Via! by Sale Pepe
Address: Whalers Village, 2435 Kā‘anapali Parkway, suite H-19, Lahaina
Hours: Open daily from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Website: viabysalepepe.com, Facebook and Instagram
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
