In February 2025, the two owners behind three of Westport's best-known dining rooms decided to divide them up. Twenty-one months later, all three rooms are still serving, one of them has a new name and menu, and the town has a fourth restaurant that didn't exist before the split. That fourth one opened October 14 on Jesup Road, and it's the only place in this group where you can get a Jerusalem bagel at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday.
Three Restaurants, Two Owners, One Decision
Bill Taibe and Massimo Tullio had owned restaurants together since 2013, starting with The Whelk in Saugatuck. Kawa Ni followed in 2014 and Don Memo in 2020, according to the CT Post. In early 2025 they "amicably" split ownership. Tullio took The Whelk and Don Memo, and Taibe kept Kawa Ni in Westport and its Denver location, which opened in 2023. The Westport Journal covered the same division when it was announced.
Tullio described it in a statement to CT Insider, quoted in the same CT Post article: "It was a natural evolution of our partnership. Bill and I have each put a lot into these restaurants over the years, and this transition allows us both to focus on the projects that mean the most to us."
Here is how the map looks today.
| Room | Address | Before the split | Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Whelk | 575 Riverside Ave., Saugatuck | Taibe and Tullio | Tullio, still serving seafood and oysters |
| Don Memo | 90 Post Road East, old town hall | Taibe and Tullio | Tullio, now Massi Co., Southern Italian-American |
| Kawa Ni | Westport | Taibe and Tullio | Taibe, still serving lunch and dinner |
| hi'Amba | 33 Jesup Road | Did not exist | Taibe, opened October 14, 2026 |
Tullio Rebuilt the Old Town Hall Room First
The first visible change came from Tullio's side. Don Memo, the Mexican cantina in Westport's historic town hall at 90 Post Road East, served its last meal on August 16, 2025, "after five amazing years," the CT Post reported. The space was converted to Massi Co., a Southern Italian-American restaurant named for Tullio.
The turnaround took less than a month. Massi Co. opened on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, per the Westport Journal. In April 2026 it appeared on 06880 as a working Westport restaurant, and its website takes reservations.
The room has a habit of reinventing itself. Before it was Don Memo, it was Jesup Hall, also a Taibe restaurant. He told Connecticut Magazine in 2020 that he had gotten bored of running it, so he worked with chef Anthony Kostelis on a Mexican menu instead. That makes Massi Co. the third concept at the address in about six years, and the first one run by Tullio alone.
Saugatuck and Kawa Ni Stayed Put
The other two rooms kept their names. The Whelk is still at 575 Riverside Avenue. Its contact page lists dinner Tuesday through Thursday, lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday, and no service Sunday or Monday. Kawa Ni, the izakaya-inspired Japanese pub, has been in Westport since 2014. It made the Michelin Guide's recommended list for its Denver location in 2024, CT Insider noted. Its site was taking reservations for November 1, 2026 and links to both lunch and dinner menus.
So for most of 2025 and 2026, the split looked like a change in ownership and little else. The bigger change came when Taibe, with only Kawa Ni left in town, opened something new.
The New Room on Jesup Road
hi'Amba is at 33 Jesup Road, in a building Westporters have known by several names. Dan Woog of 06880 describes it as "the former Basso/Matsu Sushi/Fine Arts III theater space," and wrote on opening day that "it's hard to recall a buzzier beginning."
Taibe gave CT Bites a short version of the idea: "Eastern Mediterranean Kawa Ni." The restaurant is built around a working bakery and draws on the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Southwest Asia.
The building has two floors that work differently:
- 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 with beer, wine, spritzes and plates meant for sharing.
- The kitchen: Executive Chef Karen Nicolas was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2012 and trained under Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern. Pastry Chef Michael Finehirsh worked at Daniel under François Payard and was pastry sous chef at the original Bouley.
In the morning, CT Bites reported, the menu runs to Jerusalem bagels, pita straight from the oven, man'oushe, lacquered pastries and shakshuka, with coffee from Ilse Coffee. Later in the day come sandwiches like swordfish shawarma and lamb kebab, along with what Taibe calls "a really big 'dip' program": several kinds of hummus, baba ghanoush, muhammara and hindbeh. CT Insider listed more items from the restaurant's website, including dry-aged duck kebab with cherry amba, harissa roast chicken with bread salad, and an Arabic iced coffee topped with cardamom and orange-blossom foam.
Taibe told CT Bites what he wants it to be:
"hi'Amba is about creating the kind of place you want in your neighborhood and can rely on every day. You can come in for coffee and something warm from the oven, sit down for a great meal, meet friends upstairs for a bottle of wine, or grab dinner on the way home."
What Taibe Says About Partnerships
Taibe has been unusually direct about partnerships. On October 20, hi'Amba hosted its first outside event, "In Good Company," sponsored by Stifel Investment Services and the Westport Downtown Association. Taibe sat on the panel with PopUp Bagels founder Adam Goldberg and Savvy + Grace owner Annette Norton. In 06880's write-up, one takeaway was that a 50/50 partnership "may appear balanced, but it led to one of Taibe's first failures," and that success often depends on having a plan for resolving disagreements.
The same panel shows how far his influence reaches beyond his own restaurants. Goldberg credited Taibe with helping when he and a few friends were still making their first bagels by hand. PopUp Bagels now has dozens of locations in more than 20 states.
Taibe's history in town follows a pattern of closing or handing off one concept to start the next. He opened LeFarm in 2009 and closed it in 2015, after The Whelk and Kawa Ni were already running. He turned Jesup Hall into Don Memo. The Connecticut Restaurant Association named him Restaurateur of the Year in 2021. hi'Amba is the first new room he has opened in Westport since the partnership ended.
Planning a Week Around the Four Rooms
The hours don't overlap much, which shapes when you can try each place:
- Mornings and middays, Wednesday through Sunday: hi'Amba. Its site lists 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for savory food and drinks, with Monday and Tuesday closed. During opening week, CT Bites reported pastries and morning drinks starting at 8.
- Tuesday through Saturday evenings: The Whelk in Saugatuck, with lunch added on Friday and Saturday.
- Lunch or dinner at Kawa Ni, which posts menus for both.
- Reservations at Massi Co. in the old town hall at 90 Post Road East.
Two pieces of hi'Amba are still to come. The website lists "Dinner coming soon," and the CT Insider story describes an after-4 p.m. menu of roasted chicken, kebabs and spritzers. The site also plans an online pantry where you order olive oil, amba and merchandise and pick them up at the counter. The restaurant takes private bookings through its "Hire the space" page.
Walking distance to a bakery, an izakaya, a seafood room and an old-town-hall Italian dining room is part of what you get with a house near downtown Westport or Saugatuck. If you're weighing which side of the Saugatuck River fits how you like to spend a weekend, Sunbelt Realty can walk those blocks with you. Schedule a tour: call or text Juan Carlos today.
