Westport Restaurant Openings for Fall 2026: What's Changed

If you have driven down Jesup Road this month and noticed the windows papered over at number 33, you are not imagining a pattern. The same thing has happened at the old Don Memo building. It happened years ago at the original LeFarm space. Three of Westport's most talked-about restaurant addresses have changed hands recently, and once you connect them, they are not three separate stories. They are one story, and it runs through a single chef who has spent 25 years building Westport's dining identity and is now, quietly, stepping back from most of what he built.

That chef is Bill Taibe. Understanding what he has sold, what he is opening, and where, tells you more about how Westport's restaurant scene actually works than any list of "new spots to try" ever could.

One Chef, Not Random Turnover

Taibe opened LeFarm on the Post Road in 2009, a restaurant that went on to earn him four James Beard Best Chef: Northeast semifinalist nods. He followed it with The Whelk in 2012, Kawa Ni in 2014, Jesup Hall in 2016, and Don Memo in 2020. For more than two decades, if you were eating somewhere memorable in Westport, there was a decent chance Taibe's name was attached to it.

What has changed in the past year is that Taibe has sold his interests in The Whelk, Don Memo, and LeFarm. He still runs Kawa Ni in Westport, a second Kawa Ni in Denver that earned Michelin attention, and the Norwalk Art Space Cafe. But the three restaurants he let go are still open, under new ownership, in the same buildings, and two of them now carry new names.

That distinction matters if you have been assuming a closed restaurant means a dead address. In Westport's case, it usually means the opposite.

The Don Memo Building Is Now Massi Co.

The space that housed Don Memo is now Massi Co., an Italian-American restaurant from founder Massimo Tullio, a longtime Westport resident whose name has become closely associated with the town's dining scene through his earlier work on The Whelk and Don Memo themselves. Executive Chef Zach Hinman, who built menus at both of those restaurants, is running the kitchen at Massi Co. too, working with local farms and seasonal ingredients in a style Tullio has described as simple, soulful Italian food built to share.

The restaurant opened in downtown Westport last September, which means it has had a full year to become a regular part of the rotation rather than a novelty. If you have not been in yet, it is worth knowing the address is not new. Only the name and the menu are.

LeFarm's Original Address Is Now The Cottage

The building where Taibe opened LeFarm in 2009 has gone through the same transition, operating today as The Cottage. It is the quieter of the two changeovers, with less recent press attention than the hi'Amba buzz or the Massi Co. launch, but it follows the identical pattern: a Taibe-founded restaurant, sold, renamed, and still serving the same corner of town it always has.

Put together, that is two of Westport's most recognizable restaurant names from the 2010s, now operating under different names in their original locations. If your mental map of the town still says "LeFarm" or "Don Memo," it is time to update it, not because those buildings closed, but because they didn't.

Where Taibe Is Actually Putting His Energy This Fall

While three of his old restaurants continue under other operators, Taibe is opening something entirely new this fall. hi'Amba is set to open at 33 Jesup Road, also referred to as 76 Post Road East, in the building that spent 19 years as Basso Restaurant & Wine Bar before it closed in December 2025.

The concept is a departure from anything Taibe has done in Westport before. hi'Amba is an all-day bakery, café, and restaurant built around Eastern Mediterranean, North African, and Southwest Asian flavors, with a working bakery on the ground floor, a grab-and-go market for house-made dips and pantry goods, and a full dining room upstairs. Taibe has described it as the kind of place a neighborhood does not need a special reason to visit, somewhere you can grab coffee and something warm from the oven in the morning and come back for dinner the same day.

The team is not small. General Manager Branden Hahn, who has worked at Don Memo, Kawa Ni, Jesup Hall, Augusta National, and The NoMad, is running the floor. Executive Chef Karen Nicolas, a Food & Wine Best New Chef honoree who trained under Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern and Charlie Palmer at Aureole, is running the kitchen. The town's Historic District Commission and Architectural Review Board have already signed off on the restaurant's signage, a green-lettered sign on the building's stucco face, which is usually one of the last steps before a restaurant opens its doors.

Here is a quick way to keep the addresses straight:

The Whelk followed a slightly different path. Taibe sold his interest in it too, but the restaurant kept its original name under its new owners, so it is the one case where the address, the name, and the day-to-day experience of walking in have not visibly changed at all.

Not Everything New in Westport Is a Recycled Address

The Taibe reshuffle is not the whole picture. Two other changes this year involve genuinely new construction and genuinely new arrivals rather than a familiar building changing hands.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, the New Haven pizza institution that turned 100 last year, signed its lease for a spot at 361 Post Road West in the White Birch Center, in a space that most recently held The Naan. The plan, announced in December 2025, called for construction to begin in early 2026 with an opening targeted for summer 2026. That window has technically closed as of this writing, and the most recent build-out reporting available dates back to January, so whether the doors actually opened on schedule this summer is something worth confirming before you plan a trip. When it does open, it will be Pepe's ninth Connecticut location and its first in Westport, giving residents who have been driving to Fairfield, New Haven, or Stamford for a coal-fired pie a much shorter trip.

Flat Out Burger, a New York-based smash burger spot, opened its Westport location at the corner of Grasmere Avenue and the Post Road on August 15, 2026. Unlike the Taibe-network changes, this one did not inherit an existing restaurant's name recognition. It is simply new to town, part of a broader wave of smash burger openings moving through Connecticut this year.

That contrast is worth sitting with. Westport's restaurant scene is not simply expanding outward with new construction. A meaningful share of what looks like turnover is really consolidation, with a small number of experienced operators and chefs trading buildings among themselves while the addresses stay put.

What This Means If You Eat Here Every Week

None of this requires you to do anything differently tonight. But it does explain something that might have felt confusing over the past year, which is why a favorite spot's name changed while the food, the space, and sometimes even the kitchen team stayed familiar. Massi Co. kept Zach Hinman's cooking. The Cottage kept LeFarm's building. hi'Amba is bringing a genuinely new concept but landing in a well-worn Post Road storefront that already knows how to run a restaurant.

If you are trying to figure out where to eat this fall, the practical takeaway is simple. Massi Co. and The Cottage are already a year or more into their new identities, worth a visit if you have not been back since the name changed. hi'Amba is the one to watch for an actual opening date this season. And Frank Pepe's, announced with plenty of local excitement back in December 2025, is worth a call before you drive over. The original target was this past summer, and nothing in the most recent reporting confirms whether that held.

Westport's dining map rewards the kind of attention that comes from actually living here, not just passing through. The names on the storefronts change more often than the buildings do, and knowing the difference is part of what makes this town feel like home rather than a place you are still figuring out.

If you are thinking about what comes next for your own address in Westport, whether that means finally listing a home you have loved for years or figuring out what a move within Fairfield County actually looks like, Meghan Wall would be glad to talk it through with you. Let's Connect.