Can a Westport food stop make it through a gray Tuesday in November, when Compo is empty? This fall, the owners of two well-known Westport food addresses have set that test in almost the same words. One answer opened last week on Jesup Road. The other is why the 107-year-old market at Old Mill is still dark.
On October 14, Bill Taibe opened hi'Amba at 33 Jesup Road. Fifteen days earlier, on September 29, Old Mill Grocery & Deli at 222 Hillspoint Road closed for the season and for its operator. Both places are being judged by the same standard. They have to work every day of the year, not just the warm months.
hi'Amba is set up for weekday mornings
The concept, as CTBites described it, is an all-day bakery, café and restaurant built around a working bakery. The food draws on the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Southwest Asia. Taibe told the outlet what he was aiming for: "hi'Amba is about creating the kind of place you want in your neighborhood and can rely on every day."
The layout matches that goal. Here is how the building is divided:
- Downstairs: counter service, plus a grab-and-go market with house-made dips and spreads, prepared foods, breads, pastries and specialty pantry goods.
- Upstairs: a full-service dining room for lunch and dinner, with beer, wine, spritzes and a menu meant for sharing.
- Opening-week hours, Wednesday through Sunday: pastries and morning drinks from 8 a.m., savory food and drinks from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The morning menu includes Jerusalem bagels, pita straight from the oven, man'oushe and lacquered pastries, with eggs and shakshuka for a heartier breakfast. Coffee comes from Ilse Coffee. Later in the day the kitchen moves to big sandwiches, salads and what Taibe calls a "really big 'dip' program": several hummus variations, baba ghanoush, muhammara and hindbeh. Swordfish shawarma and lamb kebab are on the sandwich list.
Dinner comes later. Taibe has said it will start "a few weeks after opening," with whole roasted fish and half or whole chicken among the entrées. No date has been announced. For now, hi'Amba is a breakfast-and-lunch stop five days a week.
Karen Nicolas runs the kitchen as executive chef. She trained under Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern and was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2012. Pastry chef Michael Finehirsh worked at Daniel and at the original Bouley. On opening day, 06880 reported "huge crowds" and wrote that it was "hard to recall a buzzier beginning."
Taibe already runs Kawa Ni in Westport, a location in Denver and the Norwalk Art Space Café. He has sold his stakes in The Whelk, Don Memo and Le Farm, according to 06880. hi'Amba is his first new Westport room in years. It is also his first that starts at 8 a.m.
The Jesup Road space was empty for less than a year this time
The building has been through this before, and the turnover gap has shortened:
- Fine Arts III, the movie theater, came first.
- Matsu Sushi ran for 17 years. Its last night was reported in 06880 on March 31, 2019.
- Basso opened on December 29, 2020, about 21 months later.
- Basso announced it would close on December 18, 2025. Its note, as 06880 reported, said, "This decision was not made lightly."
- hi'Amba opened on October 14, 2026, roughly ten months later.
The last handoff took 21 months. This one took about ten, and the space reopened with a format that runs from the morning pastry rush through lunch, with dinner still to come.
Old Mill is waiting for an operator who will stay open in winter
Across town, the same question is playing out differently. Old Mill Grocery & Deli belongs to Soundview Empowerment Alliance, a nonprofit. Romanacci, owned by brothers Graziano and Maurizio Ricci, chose not to renew its lease after three years of running the market, as the Westport Journal reported in September. The last day was September 29, the News-Times reported, and Romanacci's Westport location at 46 Railroad Place remains open. In a note published by 06880, the owners said prepaid house accounts will be honored at their other Romanacci locations. The Riccis' next announced project is a Romanacci at Heights Crossing, 346 Heights Road in Darien, which the Stamford Advocate reported in March was planned for early fall.
SEA co-founder Ian Warburg told the Westport Journal that the nonprofit is in active talks with "no fewer than four very capable and experienced groups," and that one of them "wants to start like tomorrow." He described the kind of operator SEA is looking for in the same interview:
"The viable future is an operator who comes in with a really site-specific plan and concept that's less seasonal in nature, more year-round in offering."
He also told the paper that SEA will weigh every proposal before choosing, and that the market's history shows a year-round business can work there.
Few Westport storefronts have changed hands as often. The line of operators runs from the early Old Mill Store through Kenny's and Grubb's, Elvira's, Elvira Mae's plus Joey's, The Granola Bar and, most recently, Romanacci. Sources disagree slightly on the founding date: 06880 gives 1919, and CT Insider says the 1920s. SEA bought the property around 2022. The Granola Bar and Romanacci both ran it under nonprofit ownership.
The owner of a beach market and the chef who took over an old movie theater downtown are holding their places to the same rule.
Main Street's next addition is a bagel shop
The next change on Main Street fits the same pattern. Pop-Up Bagels, founded by Westporter Adam Goldberg, has signed a lease for 178 Main Street, replacing Cold Fusion Gelato. The Westport Journal projects an early 2027 opening. Bagels will replace gelato, a summer business, at one of downtown's busiest addresses.
Late October and November, around these addresses
hi'Amba is a short walk from most of downtown's fall calendar, so the coming weeks are a natural time to try it. These are the scheduled dates as of this week:
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Through November 7 | World premiere of Ken Ludwig's Pride and Prejudice, Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley | Westport Country Playhouse |
| Sunday, October 25 | Post-show Jane Austen symposium | Westport Country Playhouse |
| Wednesday, October 28, 3:30 p.m. | Children's Halloween Parade, rain date Thursday, October 29 | Main Street via Avery Place and Myrtle Avenue to Veterans Green |
| Friday, October 30, 6 p.m. | Launch of Johanna Pagani's Violent Hill, with reading, Q&A and signing | Westport Book Shop |
| Thursday, November 5 | Post-show cast talkback | Westport Country Playhouse |
| Thursday, November 12, 7 to 9 p.m. | Westport Prize for Literature ceremony and conversation with Patmeena Sabit | Westport Library |
During opening week, savory service at hi'Amba ended at 3 p.m., half an hour before the parade's 3:30 p.m. start, so check the current hours before planning lunch on Jesup Road ahead of the walk to Main Street. hi'Amba is at 33 Jesup Road. Old Mill Grocery at 222 Hillspoint Road stays closed until SEA picks an operator.
At Dannel Malloy, we follow Westport's storefronts as closely as its listings, because the year-round places within walking distance are part of what a home here is worth. If you would like a quiet conversation about what nearby changes like these mean for your property, Request a Confidential Valuation.
