BREAKING: You heard it here first: Chef Bill Taibe is opening hi’Amba this fall in Westport, and it will fuse the beautiful flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Think: a working bakery on the ground floor, a grab-and-go market brimming with house-made dips, pantry goods, and a full dining room upstairs with a menu made for sharing. The food focuses on flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean: shakshuka, hummus, man’oushe, and a seasonal, locally-driven menu that shifts with what’s fresh.

He’s calling hi’Amba the neighborhood spot you don’t need a reason to visit. We got an exclusive sneak peek and love the layout. “hi’Amba is about creating the kind of place you want in your neighborhood and can rely on every day,” says Taibe.

Taibe’s been a central figure in the Fairfield County restaurant scene for more than 25 years, starting as a teenage butcher shop worker near Patterson, NY, before training at Baltimore International Culinary College and cutting his teeth in Port Chester and Greenwich kitchens. In 2009 he opened LeFarm in Westport, earning 4 James Beard Best Chef: Northeast semifinalist nods. The Whelk followed in 2012, Kawa Ni in 2014, Jesup Hall in 2016, Don Memo in 2020, the Norwalk Art Space Cafe in 2021 and in 2023 he opened Kawa Ni in Denver, where MICHELIN took notice a year later. He’s also been named Restaurateur of the Year by the Connecticut Restaurant Association.

The team behind it is stacked. GM Branden Hahn (Don Memo, Kawa Ni, Jesup Hall, Augusta National, The NoMad) will run the floor. Executive Chef Karen Nicolas, a Food & Wine Best New Chef alum who trained under Tom Colicchio and Charlie Palmer, will run the kitchen. On pastry: Michael Finehirsh, whose résumé is exquisite, Daniel under François Payard, Bouley, the legendary Lutèce, training at Fauchon and Le Gavroche in Paris and London.

And Jason Epstein, Bill’s longtime friend and self-taught home cook, who grew up on his Syrian grandmother’s cooking and has been in the kitchen with Bill since day one, tasting, testing, shaping the menu.

hi’Amba opens early fall at 33 Jesup Rd, Westport

Bill Taibe’s portrait by Nina Sheffield at The Westport Farmers Market 20th Anniversary Dinner.