Owner of popular Moonshadows restaurant in Malibu, and son, killed in fiery crash

Andrea Bullo, owner of the popular Moonshadows restaurant in Malibu, was killed along with his son in a fiery crash this week in Woodland Hills, an employee confirmed.

On Wednesday night, employees and patrons of the upscale beachside restaurant gathered there for a private vigil, an employee told The Times. The restaurant is expected to remain closed Thursday, and it’s unclear when it will reopen.

“We are grieving right now as individuals and as a whole family,” said the employee, who asked not to be identified. The coroner has not officially released the identities of the victims in the crash.

A 2014 Toyota Camry was speeding eastbound on West Mulholland Drive about 9 p.m. Tuesday when it crashed into the rear of a 1965 Mustang, leaving both cars engulfed in flames, Officer Warren Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department said.

The driver and passenger inside the Mustang were both pronounced dead at the scene. The restaurant employee confirmed it was Bullo and his son, Marco, inside the vehicle.

The driver of the Camry, Kevin Ivan Gonzales, 21, was arrested and booked on suspicion of two counts of homicide, Moore said. Police suspect alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.

Bullo was a mainstay of the culinary scene in the Los Angeles area for years, but he got his start in his native Venice, Italy, at Do Forni e Antico Pignolo.

In the 1990s, he managed Prego in Beverly Hills before opening Moonshadows in 2001, according to his biography on the restaurant website.

Since then, the restaurant has become a popular and standout location along the Malibu coast, attracting celebrities while also becoming one of Yelp’s top 100 restaurants across the country.