Bruno Macchiavello, the chef and co-owner of two of Charlotte’s most popular Peruvian restaurants, hopes to open more restaurants in the area.
Macchiavello, originally from Lima, Peru, has made a name for himself by opening Viva Chicken, a fast-casual rotisserie chicken chain, and Yunta Nikkei, a Peruvian-Japanese fusion spot in South End. Now, he tells Axios Charlotte that he would like to eventually open another Peruvian fusion restaurant in Charlotte, possibly focusing on Peruvian-Chinese food called chifa. There is no exact timeline for this new restaurant.
Macchiavello moved to the area in 1989 and first started working at the original Showmars. Since then, not only has he opened a handful of Peruvian-inspired restaurants, including Poplar, a wine and tapas restaurant at The Morrison House in Historic Fourth Ward, but he plans to continue to push its growth by investing his time in helping other entrepreneurs or opening more restaurants.
“My mission for the next ten years is to show Charlotte everything that Peruvian food has to offer,” Macchiavello tells Axios. “Not just pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken) or ceviche. I was raised in an environment between fine dining and street food. When I first moved to Charlotte, I had a bit of culture shock because I came from a big city. But I could see its future [potential]. You could tell it was going to grow.”
