Chef Michele Di Bari, owner of Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina in Lahaina and Via! by Sale Pepe in Kāʻanapali, was named a semifinalist in the prestigious 2026 James Beard Awards. Known as Maui’s only certified pizzaiolo, Chef Michele was recognized among 19 other semifinalists in the Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific (AK, HI, OR, WA) category.

A Lahaina restaurateur has been named a semifinalist for one of the culinary world’s most prestigious honors, marking a bright spot for the West Maui dining scene as it recovers from the 2023 wildfires.

Chef Michele Di Bari, owner of Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina in Lahaina and Via! by Sale Pepe in Kāʻanapali, was announced Thursday as a semifinalist for the 2026 James Beard Awards.

Nine Hawai‘i chefs and restaurants are among just over 500 nationwide who are in the running for the 2026 James Beard Awards. Those named as semifinalists in a press release this morning by the New York-based James Beard Foundation include four nominated for national awards and five for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific. Five of the nine are first-time semifinalists for the leading culinary awards in the U.S.

Aloha State Daily recently spoke with the Di Baris ahead of the ahead of the second anniversary of the fire to talk about their experience during the tragedy, their rebuilding — and their newest endeavor.

Maui wildfire survivors Michele and Qiana Di Bari were able to move back to their Lahaina home last year, but they say it has been at least six months since they have visited Front Street, where their decade-old restaurant Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina was lost to the flames.

In honor and remembrance of the second anniversary of the 2023 Lahaina wildfires, Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina is donating all proceeds from its Margherita Pizza throughout August to the Maui Pono Foundation.

The first restaurant to fully rebuild and reopen in Lahaina following the 2023 Maui wildfires is giving back to the community.

On Wednesday, Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina announced it’s donating all proceeds from each margherita pizza serving to the Maui Pono Foundation throughout the month of August.

There’s a new culinary addition to Whaler’s Village in Kaanapali, bringing a bit of New York City flair to Maui. Via! by Sale Pepe is a fresh new concept to Maui’s dining scene that debuted recently.

Via! by Sale Pepe, a fresh new concept to Maui’s culinary scene has arrived at Whalers Village in Kāʻanapali. Husband-and-wife restaurateurs Michele and Qiana Di Bari bring a fast casual twist to the Italian flavors that made their Lahaina favorite, Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina, a beloved dining destination.

After the 2023 fire destroyed Sale Pepe, the beloved Italian bistro where local chefs ate on their days off, the restaurant’s owners, Qiana and Michele di Bari, pledged to rebuild. Through sheer will and aloha, they succeeded.

Their motto is “One Part Milan, One Part Brooklyn, All Maui,” so you know a pizza from Sal e Pepe is going to be special. This is a love story for sure, but it’s also a story of resilience and courage, in the wake of the deadly Lahaina wildfires from 2023.

After losing their Front Street restaurant in the Maui wildfires in August 2023, the owners of Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina are set to reopen the Italian restaurant at a new location in Lahaina by early spring and have another location in the works at Kapalua Resort.

Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. announced that Sale Pepe Pizzeria e Cucina will soon open their second location at Kapalua Resort after the 2023 wildfires claimed its original Front Street location.

A decade ago, Qiana and Michele Di Bari moved from New York to Lahaina, where, they say, they finally found a place that felt like home. But in August, after the couple and their 12-year-old daughter, Jada, fled the wildfires that tore through the town, and after chaos and confusion forced multiple evacuations a few days later, Jada broke down and said, “This doesn’t feel like home anymore.”

A year after wildfires tore through Lahaina, Hawaii, restauranteur Qiana Di Bari is still packing up trash bags, each filled with smoke-damaged belongings, and carrying them out of her home one at a time in a painstaking effort to rebuild.