In a sweeping on-the-ground report on Lāhainā's slow and complicated road to recovery, SFGATE Hawaii Contributing Editor Christine Hitt chose Sale Pepe as the lens through which to tell the story of what it looks like to actually come back. Arriving at Emerald Plaza at dusk, Hitt describes the bright marquee sign glowing over the restaurant's new location — busy with customers, lines out the door — as one of the clearest signs of life in a town still largely waiting to rebuild. Co-owner Qiana Di Bari told SFGATE that the decision to reopen was driven by an outpouring of community support, and that Sale Pepe's lease on its original Front Street location with the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation remains intact, ready for the day Lāhainā's iconic street returns.

Modern Luxury Hawaii spotlights Sale Pepe's remarkable new chapter in its latest dining feature. Writer Ela Sathern reports that chef Michele Di Bari has been named a semifinalist for the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific — a monumental honor for the restaurant, its team, and the Lāhainā community it helped rebuild. The feature also marks Sale Pepe's expansion to daily service, now welcoming guests seven nights a week from 5–8:30 p.m. for housemade pastas and wood-fired pizzas. "This honor is incredible for me, our team and our Lāhainā community," says chef Michele. "Cooking is about joy, connection and bringing people together."

Sale Pepe has joined forces with the Maui Chocolate Tour at Ku'ia Estates for a one-of-a-kind culinary journey rooted in Maui's agricultural spirit. The new Farm and Feast Experience takes guests from a guided tour of a 20-acre private cacao farm in Lāhainā — complete with a chocolate tasting in a treetop treehouse — to an evening dinner at Sale Pepe, where locally sourced ingredients and Italian-crafted cuisine bring the farm-to-table story full circle. The partnership reflects a shared philosophy between the two businesses: deep respect for the land, the ingredients, and the community that grows them.

In its definitive guide to the best pizza across the island, the award-winning Maui Nō Ka ʻOi Magazine spotlights Sale Pepe as home to Maui's only certified pizzaiolo. The feature highlights Michele Di Bari's Italian training at the Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli, his three-to-four-day dough fermentation process, and the weekly shipment of Italian cheeses and cured meats that make each pie possible — alongside standout pies like the spicy soppressata Calabrese and the mortadella with pistachio and burrata. The guide also honors the Di Baris' commitment to Lāhainā, noting their rebuild in the same community after the 2023 wildfire.

W Magazine tapped three Maui locals — a swimwear designer, a pro windsurfer, and six-time James Beard-nominated chef Sheldon Simeon — for the definitive insider's guide to the island. Among their where-to-eat picks: Sale Pepe, called out as an independent Italian gem from a Milanese chef and Brooklyn native who lost their home and restaurant in the Lahaina fire and rebuilt. The guide highlights the restaurant's commitment to locally sourced ingredients alongside Italian-imported flour, fior di latte, and bufala mozzarella — housemade pastas and artisanal pizzas served the way they were always meant to be.

Resy sat down with Qiana and Michele Di Bari for a deep dive into the story behind Sale Pepe — from Michele's roots in Milan and the lessons learned at Brooklyn's legendary Franny's, to the 2023 Lahaina wildfire that destroyed everything they'd built, and the remarkable community-fueled comeback that made Sale Pepe the first restaurant on the island to rebuild and reopen. Writer Lizzie Takimoto traces a decade of dough craft, aloha spirit, and the kind of neighborhood hospitality that keeps people coming back — and that had the community raising $100,000 to make sure they did.

Two-time James Beard Award winner and Resy managing editor Jon Bonné set out to map the state of pizza across America — and Sale Pepe made the cut. In his sweeping essay on the rise of the country's pizza culture, Bonné calls out Qiana and Michele Di Bari's Maui restaurant as proof that pizza exceptionalism now reaches every corner of the country, noting the restaurant's signature Milan-Brooklyn spirit as a prime example of the hybrid, deeply personal approach defining the best pizzerias in the nation today.

The beloved Italian trattoria is back on Lahaina's dining map — and brighter than ever. The Infatuation named Sale Pepe to its annual guide to the best restaurants in Maui, praising the pillowy focaccia gonfia, housemade pastas like the mafaldine with braised beef cheek, and the warm, welcoming energy that makes it the kind of place you'll want to squeeze in one last dinner before your flight home.