By Dave Matlow
Westport’s west bank of the Saugatuck River, already hopping with new restaurants Bartaco and Cafe Moja, will soon add a new 120-seat restaurant in National Hall, by the end of the year, according to Westporter Mark Coe, property development consultant for Greenfield Partners.
The ground floor of National Hall will be the location of an Italian restaurant by the end of the year. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
It will be a return to the past—after the building converted to a 15-room luxury hotel in 1993, there were several restaurants on the ground floor, but they gave way to office space in 2005. The hotel closed in 2010 and Greenfield Partners took over the building, which dates to 1873 and once was part of the thriving 19th century Westport waterfront.
Coe said the 4,685-square foot space will have seating for 120 and will feature a bar, cafe and white tablecloth sections.
According to Bobby Werhane, founder of Experience Hospitality and owner of the new establishment, “the name of the restaurant has not yet been determined but definitely will not be called Spasso,” an Italian restaurant he owns at 551 Hudson St, New York.
He said the Westport restaurant “will have a rustic design and feature non-traditional Italian-inspired Mediterranean regional cuisine. It will be an amalgamation of current New York City restaurants” with which he is affiliated.
Werhane, a graduate of the Cornell University Hospitality Management School who grew up in Texas and Baltimore before moving to New York City and then Westport, describes himself as “a producer who puts together concept teams.”
A Westport resident for five years, he and his wife are the parents of three children.
