And a serendipitous journey to opening four neighborhood businesses
by Stephanie Barna | Contributing Writer
Joe Walker didn’t mean to take over an entire West Ashley strip mall and open a bunch of businesses. He didn’t even mean to get back into the F&B business. It just kind of happened.
Walker is genuinely surprised he ended up here. A decade ago, the restaurant industry humbled him after he opened Stereo 8, a funky joint on James Island that, he says, may or may not have been ahead of its time. When it shuttered, he swore off restaurants and pivoted to a different industry, convinced it was impossible to make money as a restaurateur.
“But this strip led me back to it,” he says. “It’s an unbelievable feeling to get back into an industry that basically kicked my ass.”
This month, a three-year odyssey that started with Shift Pilates studio culminates with the opening of Bad Bambino, a date-night Italian joint that speaks to Walker’s New York roots. It also marks the fourth business he, his wife Diana, and their business partner Shannon Wakeland have opened in the nondescript little strip mall on Ashley River Road.
“I’m very proud that we’ve pulled it off — the final product is gonna be pretty epic when all is said and done,” he says.
It all started in 2023, when they opened their first Shift Pilates downtown on Meeting Street and asked their realtor to keep an eye out for a second location.
“I told her to let us know if she saw something cool — and two weeks later this came up,” he says. They weren’t interested in moving that fast, but opportunity was knocking. “I super lowballed them, because I wanted it, but I didn’t want it, you know.”
The trio decided to go for it. “It was much more space than we needed for the studio, so we thought it’d be cool to add a coffee bar element to it.” Eight months in, as they were finishing the build-out, the former fish and chips shop next door came available.
“I knew we could put a proper coffee shop in that space,” he says. “So we grabbed that spot, and it took another eight months to build that out.”
Since its launch in early 2025, Café Roca has become much more than a coffee shop. It’s a popular gathering spot for friends and neighbors, a makeshift office space, and an easy place to grab a tasty breakfast and lunch. And now it will be open in the evening … but more on that later.
As Café Roca cemented its place in West Ashley, Taco Bartina announced it was closing and the landlord once again approached Walker to see if he had a vision for the space.
“I wasn’t interested in a 3,500-square-foot restaurant,” he says. But he was interested in splitting it into multiple storefronts. They started with The Corner Store, a tiny grab-and-go neighborhood bodega stocked with beer, wine, and local products, which opened last summer. From there, Walker rolled right into working on the next space and his next concept — Bad Bambino.
“I dreamed of opening an Italian place back in January of 2025,” he says. “I didn’t know then there would be a rash of Italian places opening in Charleston since then.”
With Chef Will Cammer at the helm, Walker is confident they’ll be able to serve their neighborhood with a straightforward, relatable version of Italian, but Cammer’s influence has shifted the focus just a bit.
“It’s a little more elegant than the original family idea. I mean chicken parms are great, but that’s not the world where he comes from,” Walker says, noting that Cammer started his career at the critically acclaimed Optimist in Atlanta and most recently worked downtown at Costa, a seafood-focused Italian restaurant. “This guy comes in and it’s like an episode of The Bear,” says Walker. “He oversees both Bad Bambino and Café Roca.”
Rectangle pizzas and handmade pastas anchor a big part of Bad Bambino’s menu, which also features the aforementioned chicken parm, as well as the Bistecca Limone, a pan-seared flat iron steak served with lemon risotto and grilled broccolini; the Rotolo al Forno, a creative take on lasagna, that includes ricotta, spinach, béchamel, a pork, beef, and veal ragù.; and a catch of the day.
The restaurant offers dine-in with 36 seats, including a large L-shaped bar that overlooks the busy kitchen. There is a small but creative wine program. And there will be a big focus on takeout. Walker is using the neighboring spots to support Bad Bambino.
Café Roca will now be open in the evenings, with a menu of five to six small plates and a full coffee program, serving as an overflow waiting room for Bad Bambino. The Corner Store will be a pickup spot where customers can grab wine and dessert to go with their pizza and pasta.
“We plan to have a robust takeout program,” says Walker. But for those who want to dine in, the small, intimate restaurant is a cozy place to dig into some of Cammer’s more elevated dishes.
Despite swearing off hospitality, Walker knows that he’s learned from his mistakes and says he might even be a little bit wiser. “There’s a different lens for me today that’s been really interesting,” he says. “This whole venture has been a remarkable exercise in serendipity.”
Bad Bambino is scheduled to officially open for dinner service on Friday, Oct. 2. It is located at 1301 Ashley River Road. For more information, follow them at www.instagram.com/badbambino_chs.
