For 19 years, 33 Jesup Road was a dinner address. Basso Restaurant & Wine Bar closed there last December. Westport Journal reported in September that the building's next tenant would be hi'Amba, a bakery, café and restaurant from Bill Taibe. The full opening is Wednesday, October 14, according to CT Bites. It starts with breakfast and lunch only.
That timing matters for the rest of downtown. Several other changes have been announced this fall, and most are still months away. The one you can walk into this week sits at the Jesup Road end of downtown, and it opens in the morning.
A Dinner Corner Opens in the Morning
The soft opening on Friday, October 9 drew a crowd. 06880 reported the space was "packed all day," with diners eating both inside and outside. It also noted that hi'Amba was not yet serving dinner and would close for a couple of days after the weekend to get ready for the real opening.
Taibe described the concept to CT Bites as an "Eastern Mediterranean Kawa Ni." The menu draws on the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Southwest Asia, and a working bakery sits at the center of it. The building is split by floor and by how you order:
- 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, later, dinner, with beer, wine, spritzes and a menu built for sharing.
At launch the morning menu runs on Ilse Coffee, Jerusalem bagels, pita straight from the oven, man'oushe, lacquered pastries, hot eggs and shakshuka. Later in the day it moves to big sandwiches, big salads and what Taibe called "a really big 'dip' program." That program includes several kinds of hummus, baba ghanoush, Cretan mash, muhammara and hindbeh. Sandwiches include swordfish shawarma and lamb kebab.
Taibe also told CT Bites the goal is "the kind of place you want in your neighborhood and can rely on every day," somewhere you can stop for "coffee and something warm from the oven" or "grab dinner on the way home." That describes a daily stop, which is a different job from the one this corner did for nearly two decades.
Dinner Comes Back Later
For the first few weeks, hi'Amba closes before the evening crowd arrives. CT Bites says dinner will start "a few weeks after opening," with whole roasted fish from the oven and half or whole chicken among the entrées. No date or hours have been posted. If you're planning a late-October dinner here, check before you go.
On the same stretch, 90 Post Road East already covers dinner. That's Massi Co., Massimo Tullio's Italian restaurant, which took over the former Don Memo space after Don Memo closed on August 16, 2025, according to the CT Post. In April, Massi Co. was named one of the town's first Restaurant Champions, recognized for food donations to the Gillespie Center and for switching to paper takeout lids, as 06880 reported.
The two restaurants share some history. In January 2025, Taibe and Tullio split the restaurants they had run together, according to CT Bites. Taibe took Kawa Ni in Westport and Denver, and Tullio took The Whelk and Don Memo. Taibe also runs the café at the Norwalk Art Space, per 06880. So the stretch from 90 Post Road East to 33 Jesup Road now has one restaurant from each half of that former partnership, a short walk apart.
Main Street's Changes Run on a Longer Clock
Main Street has had plenty of news this fall too, but most of it is leases, permits and target dates. Here's what was announced and when it actually lands:
| Business | Address | Status as reported | Expected timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| hi'Amba | 33 Jesup Road | Soft-opened Oct. 9; full opening Oct. 14 | Breakfast and lunch now, dinner in "a few weeks" |
| Sea Bags | 19 Church Lane | Holiday pop-up open | Three months from early October |
| Brooks Brothers | 44 Main St., moving from 136 Main St. | Signage approved by HDC and ARB | Around February, per a store employee |
| Pop-Up Bagels | 178 Main St., former Cold Fusion Gelato | Lease signed | Early 2027 |
06880 reported that the Sea Bags pop-up on Church Lane opened in early October and will run for three months. That makes it a holiday-season store with an end date built in. Brooks Brothers is moving down Main Street to 44 Main St., an empty storefront between Chanel and alo, according to Westport Journal. The February estimate came from an employee, not a company announcement. Pop-Up Bagels, which Adam Goldberg founded in Westport, has signed a lease for 178 Main St. and expects to open in early 2027, as Westport Journal reported.
For now, that leaves hi'Amba as the only bakery-and-coffee opening downtown this season. The Main Street bagel shop comes after the winter.
Parking Around the Corner Stays As It Is
The parking lots around the Jesup Road corner aren't changing on any announced schedule. The redesign of Parker Harding Plaza, Jesup Green and Imperial Avenue has been discussed for years, and no 2026 construction date is on the public record. As of early September, 06880 reported that the town's Downtown Plan Implementation Committee had last met on December 11, 2025.
So parking around hi'Amba this fall works the way it did when Basso was there. A new all-day restaurant is opening into the same lots, and nothing on the public record suggests that will change before the holidays.
The Calendar Through December
Downtown's fall dates will bring a lot of foot traffic past these blocks. The Westport Downtown Association lists its Halloween Parade for Wednesday, October 28 at 3:30 p.m., with a rain date of Thursday, October 29. The route runs from Main Street via Avery Place and Myrtle Avenue to Veterans Green. A 3:30 start on a weekday falls in the afternoon window when hi'Amba's counter and market are already open.
The Westport Library calendar fills in the next two months:
- October 22: Haskins Lecture with biologist Joan Maloof.
- October 25: "Pink or Treat: Snickerdoodle's Howl-o-ween!"
- November 12: Westport Prize for Literature ceremony and author conversation.
- November 14: "Supper & Soul," a Grateful Dead program.
- November 21: The Train Room reopens.
- December 12: Family concert with The LeeVees.
The Downtown Association's Holiday Stroll page still shows last year's event, held December 6, 2025. As of mid-October, no 2026 date for the stroll or a downtown tree lighting has been posted.
New openings like hi'Amba, and moves like Brooks Brothers and Pop-Up Bagels, can shape how buyers see nearby downtown Westport homes and storefronts are worth. If you'd like to see how this fall's changes on Jesup Road and Main Street fit into the local market, Bob Virgulak can walk you through it. Request a Market Consultation.
