Bad Bambino brings Italian comfort food to West Ashley strip center

Bad Bambino is headed to 1301 Ashley River Road in West Ashley, where Joe and Diana Walker are targeting an August debut for an Italian comfort-food restaurant led by chef Will Cammer. The opening would add another sit-down draw to the Ashley River Road strip center, where the Walkers already operate Shift Pilates Body Shop and Cafe Roca.

The new spot is being shaped with a tighter, moodier identity than a bright cafe format. Red neon signage is already in place outside, and the restaurant’s Instagram presence has called it the “New kid on the block.” Bad Bambino grew out of the Walkers’ earlier plan to split the former Taco Bartina space, a 2,200-square-foot unit, into three distinct concepts, including a corner store, a public co-working hub and an Italian restaurant. Joe Walker previously ran Studio 8 on James Island, giving the project a restaurant operator behind the familiar neighborhood-business playbook.

On the plate, Bad Bambino is leaning into the kind of red-sauce comfort food that keeps pasta diners coming back for weeknight dinners and easy takeout. Planned menu items include chicken parmesan, Bolognese and alfredo, along with upstate New York-style pizzas. The restaurant will also have a beer-and-wine bar with a curated wine program, putting drinks in step with the dinner menu rather than tacking them on as an afterthought.

That combination gives West Ashley another clearly defined Italian option at a time when the corridor is steadily adding more destination businesses. Cafe Roca opened in February 2025, and the Walkers had also lined up The Corner Store as part of the same cluster of projects. Instead of arriving as a standalone restaurant, Bad Bambino is joining a strip center that is being built out concept by concept.

West Ashley’s scale helps explain why the Walkers keep betting on the area. The suburb had 83,996 residents in 2022, and local planning efforts tied to the West Ashley Revitalization Committee have focused on economic development and flood prevention through Plan West Ashley. Bad Bambino fits neatly into that shift, adding a red-neon Italian room to a corridor that is becoming more than a convenience stop. When the restaurant opens in August, it will extend the Walkers’ strip-center cluster one more step.